Novel Cellulases and Their Uses

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides novel cellulase fusion proteins, preparations of cellulase fusion proteins and compositions of cellulase fusion proteins. The present invention further provides cellulase expression vectors, host cells expressing cellulase and methods for preparing such vectors and cells. Uses of cellulases, cellulase preparations and cellulase compositions in the textile, detergent, pulp and paper industries are also provided.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 11/119,526, filed on Apr. 29, 2005 and is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present invention relates to novel cellulase fusion proteins, preparations and compositions containing these cellulase fusion proteins, expression vectors, host cells and methods for their preparation and uses of the cellulases, preparations and compositions in the textile, detergent and pulp and paper industries.

BACKGROUND

Cellulose is a linear polysaccharide of glucose residues connected by β-1,4 linkages. In nature, cellulose is usually associated with lignin together with hemicelluloses, such as xylans and glucomannans. Cellulolytic enzymes hydrolyze cellulose and are produced by a wide variety of bacteria and fungi. Cellulases are industrially important enzymes with a current annual market value of about 190 million US $. In the textile industry, cellulases are used in denim finishing to create a fashionable stone washed appearance in denim cloths in a biostoning process, and they are also used, for instance, to clean fuzz and prevent formation of pills on the surface of cotton garments. In detergent industry cellulases are used to brighten colors and to prevent graying and pilling of garments. Cellulases are further used in food industry and animal feed manufacturing, and they have a great potential in the pulp and paper industry, for instance, in deinking to release ink from fiber surfaces and in improving pulp drainage. The wide spectrum of industrial uses for cellulases has established a need for commercial cellulase products containing different cellulase components and functioning optimally in different pH and temperature ranges.

The practical use of cellulases is hampered by the nature of the known cellulases, which are often mixtures of cellulases having a variety of activities and substrate specificities. For this reason, efforts have been made to obtain cellulases having only the desired activities. The unique properties of each cellulase make some more suitable for certain purposes than others. While the enzymes differ in a number of ways, one of the most important differences is the pH optimum. Neutral cellulases are most active in the pH range 6-8 and alkaline cellulases in the pH range 7.5-10, whereas acid cellulases, having the pH optimum at pH 4.5-5.5, show very low activity levels at higher pH values. Neutral and acid cellulases are especially useful in the textile industry. In fabric treatment cellulases attack the chains of cellulose molecules that form the cotton fibers, thereby affecting the characteristics of the fabric.

In textile industry “stone washed” look or an abraded look has been denim producers' interest in recent years. Traditional stone washing with pumice stones reduces the strength of fabric and burdens the laundering apparatuses. The trend has been towards enzymatic denim finishing processes and cellulases have replaced or are being used together with pumice stones to give the fabric its desired “worn” look. Controlled enzyme treatment results in less damage to the garments and machines and eliminates the need for disposal of stones.

Cellulases applied in denim treatment are usually divided into two main groups: acid and neutral cellulases. Acid cellulases typically operate at pH 4.5-5.5 and the neutral cellulases in the range of pH 6-8. Acid cellulases used in biostoning mainly originate from Trichoderma reesei (sexual form Hypocrea jecorina) and the neutral cellulases come from a variety of fungi, including genera of Melanocarpus, Humicola, Thielavia, Myceliophthora, Fusarium, Acremonium, and Chrysosporium (Haakana et al. 2004). T. reesei enzymes include, e.g., cellulases from the glycoside family 5 (endoglucanase II, EGII), family 7 (cellobiohydrolase I, CBHI) and family 12 (endoglucanase III, EGIII; Ward et al. 1993), and the neutral cellulases, most often endoglucanases, from family 45 and family 7 (Henrissat, 1991; Henrissat and Bairoch, 1993).

Cellulases comprise a catalytic domain/core (CD) expressing cellulase activity. In addition to the catalytic domain the cellulase molecule may comprise one or more cellulose binding domains (CBDs), also named as carbohydrate binding domains/modules (CBD/CBM), which can be located either at the N- or C-terminus of the catalytic domain. CBDs have carbohydrate-binding activity and they mediate the binding of the cellulase to crystalline cellulose but have little or no effect on cellulase hydrolytic activity of the enzyme on soluble substrates. These two domains are typically connected via a flexible and highly glycosylated linker region.

Cellulases that attack primarily on the surface of the fiber are especially useful in stone washing of denim dyed with Indigo dye, as the dye is located on the surface of the fiber. When used to treat cotton fabric, neutral cellulases generally require a longer washing time than the acid cellulases. However, neutral cellulases have less aggressive action on cotton than acid cellulases, and do not affect on the strength of the fabric as much as acid cellulases. Neutral cellulases have a broader pH profile and thus the pH increase that occurs during biostoning has little effect on the activity of neutral cellulase enzymes. However, since cellulase treatments also have undesirable effects, such as fiber damage and strength loss, a suitable balance between the desired and unwanted effects has to be sought.

WO97/14804, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses three novel neutral cellulases of Melanocarpus origin, which are especially useful in the textile and detergent industry. Specifically a 20 kDa endoglucanase (Cel45A), a 50 kDa endoglucanase (Cel7A), and a 50 kDa cellobiohydrolase (Cel7B) are described. These cellulases designated herein as “20K-cellulase”, “50K-cellulase”, and “50K cellulase B”, respectively, are derived from Melanocarpus albomyces and show good stone washing effects.

Since there is an existing demand, especially in the textile and detergent industry, for further improved cellulases, it has been suggested that improvements in cellulases could be obtained by forming fusion proteins. Also in WO97/14804 fusion protein constructs of 20K-cellulase, 50K-cellulase, and 50K cellulase B with, for instance, Trichoderma reesei cellulase, hemicellulase or mannase or functional domains thereof, are generally suggested. Further, in order to create new properties for the disclosed cellulases, fusions of the disclosed cellulases with domains, such as cellulose binding domain (CBD), preferably with its linker, are suggested. However, no specific examples are given, nor are described the new properties aimed to.

Cellulase fusion proteins are additionally known, for instance, from WO96/29397, which discloses endoglucanases formed by a fusion between endoglucanases from Myceliophthora thermophila, from Macrophomina phaseolina and from Crinipellis scabella and the CBD/linker from Humicola insolens. Said endoglucanases in their natural form do not have a CBD/linker.

EP 663 950 discloses cellulase variants, especially Humicola insolens 43 kDa cellulase variants, wherein the cellulase may include a linking region from another microorganism species, for instance for providing improved properties, such as improved resistance to anionic surfactants, to oxidation or to bleaching agents.

However, there is a continuous need for improved cellulases that also are less harmful to the fiber in textile industry and in other fields, where cellulases traditionally are used. In particular, there is a continuous need for more efficient cellulases to improve the process economics.

The present invention aims to meet this need.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

An object of the present invention is to provide novel cellulase fusion proteins having improved hydrolytic properties for use in textile industry, especially in stone washing denim, and for use in detergent compositions as well as in other fields. The novel cellulase fusion proteins of the invention are active at neutral and alkaline pH values, they have highly improved washing performance in textile biofinishing and biostoning applications and in detergent applications, and yet they do not compromise the strength of fabrics. With the improved efficiency of the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention, the manufacturing process of the enzymes is significantly more economical. Additional advantages are achieved also in terms of logistics and the storage of the enzyme products, when smaller amounts of the enzyme product are needed.

A further object of the present invention is to provide polynucleotides encoding the novel cellulase fusion proteins of the present inventions.

A further object of the present invention is to provide novel expression plasmids or vectors containing such polynucleotides, useful for the production of the novel cellulase fusion proteins of the present invention, and novel hosts transformed with said expression plasmids.

A further object of the present invention is to provide enzyme preparations, which contain one or more novel cellulase fusion proteins having improved hydrolytic properties.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide methods of using the enzyme preparations and the cellulase fusion proteins for finishing of textiles, especially for biostoning of denim.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide means for the use of the enzyme preparations of the invention in detergent compositions.

The present invention relates to a novel cellulase fusion protein comprising

A. an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species, and

B. an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species,

wherein a junction region has been introduced between said first amino acid sequence and said second amino acid sequence, whereby a stable fusion protein is obtained.

Preferably, the junction region has the following general formula:

¹A-²B-³C-⁴D-⁵E-⁶F

wherein

¹A is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, and Val; preferably ¹A is Gly or Val, most preferably Gly;

²B is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, Phe, Val, Glu, Asp, Gln, and Asn; preferably ²B is Pro, Gln, or Glu;

³C is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Lys, Leu, Pro, Ile, Val, Ser, and Thr; preferably ³C is Ile;

⁴D is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, and Val; preferably ⁴D is Gly or Pro;

⁵E is selected from a group consisting of Ser, Pro and Thr; preferably ⁵E is Ser; and

⁶F is selected from a group consisting of Ser, Thr or is absent, preferably ⁶F is Ser or is absent; wherein ¹A is attached at the C-terminal amino acid sequence of the cellulase core and ⁶F is attached at the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the linker and/or domain (CBD).

The present invention further relates to an expression vector comprising a first polynucleotide sequence encoding an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species, and a second polynucleotide sequence encoding an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species, and a polynucleotide encoding a junction region connecting said first and second polynucleotide sequences, said polynucleotide sequences encoding the respective amino acid sequences of the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention.

The present invention further relates to novel hosts transformed with the vectors of the invention, especially hosts that are capable of high level expression of the cellulase fusion protein of the invention.

The present invention further relates to an enzyme preparation, which contains one or more cellulase fusion proteins of the invention.

The present invention further relates to a method for using the enzyme preparations of the invention for the finishing of textiles, especially for biostoning of denim.

The present invention further relates to the use of the enzyme preparations of the invention in detergent compositions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK1480.

FIG. 2 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK492.

FIG. 3 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK424.

FIG. 4 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK1237.

FIG. 5 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK1241.

FIG. 6 is the schematic map of the plasmid p3SR2.

FIG. 7 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK1649.

FIG. 8 is the schematic map of the plasmid pALK1694.

FIG. 9A. The expression cassette used in the transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for producing the 20K+CBD fusion proteins. The 20K+CBD gene was under the control of the cbh1 (cel7A) promoter (cbh1 prom) and termination of transcription was ensured by using the cbh1 terminator sequence (term). The amdS gene (amdS) and the cbhI 3′ flanking region (cbhI 3′ flanking) were included. FIG. 9B. Amino acid sequence of a junction point at which Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (Cel45A) protein is fused to linker peptide of Trichoderma reesei CBHI (Cel7A) followed by the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) in pALK1434 and pALK1435 plasmids (See SEQ ID NOs: 61, 62, 63). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid in the CBD region is indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 10A. The expression cassette used in the transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for producing the 20K+CBD fusion proteins. The 20K+CBD gene was under the control of the cbh1 (cel7A) promoter (cbh1 prom) and termination of transcription was ensured by using the cbh1 terminator sequence (term). The amdS gene (amdS) and the cbhI 3′ flanking region (cbhI 3′ flanking) were included. FIG. 10B. Amino acid sequence of a junction point at which Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (Cel45A) protein is fused to linker peptide of Trichoderma reesei CBHI (Cel7A) followed by the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) in pALK1768, pALK1769, pALK1770 and pALK1775 plasmids (See SEQ ID NOs: 64, 65, 66, 67). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics (SEQ ID NO:63). The first amino acid in the CBD region is indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 11A. The expression cassette used in the transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for producing the 20K+CBD_(mut) fusion proteins. The 20K+CBD_(mut) gene was under the control of the cbh1 (cel7A) promoter (cbh1 prom) and termination of transcription was ensured by using the cbh1 terminator sequence (term). The amdS gene was included as a transformation marker. FIG. 11B. Amino acid sequence of a junction point at which Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (Cel45A) protein is fused to linker peptide of Trichoderma reesei CBHI (Cel7A) followed by the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) (See SEQ ID NOs: 68, 69, 70). The amino acid substitutions in the CBD region of the pALK1877-pALK1880 expression cassettes are also presented (See SEQ ID NOs: 71, 72, 73, 74). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid and the tyrosine residues or their substitutions in the CBD region are indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 12A Amino acid sequence of the interdomain linker peptide of T. reesei CBHI (Cel7A) (SEQ ID NO:79). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined. ΔG-444 and ΔG-460 represent the linker deletion of residues 434-444 and 434-460, respectively. FIG. 12B. Amino acid sequence of a junction point at which Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (Cel45A) protein is fused to truncated linker peptide of Trichoderma reesei CBHI (Cel7A) followed by the intact or mutated cellulose-binding domain (CBD) in the pALK1893, pALK1896, pALK1899 and pALK1952 expression cassettes (See SEQ ID NOs: 75, 76, 77, 78). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid and the tyrosine residues or their substitutions in the CBD region are indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 13A. The expression cassette used in transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for production of the 50K+CBD fusion protein. The 50K+CBD gene is under control of T. reesei cbhI promoter (cbhI prom) and transcription termination is ensured with the addition of the cbhI terminator (term). The amdS gene (amdS) and the cbhI 3′ flanking region (cbhI 3′) are included. FIG. 13B. Amino acid sequence of the junction point of the M. albomyces 50K linked to the T. reesei CBHI linker+CBD (See SEQ ID NOs: 80, 81, 82). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid in the CBD region is indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 14A. The expression cassette used in transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for production of the 50KB+CBD fusion protein. The 50KB+CBD gene is under control of T. reesei cbhI promoter (cbhI prom) and transcription termination is ensured with the addition of the cbhI terminator (term). The amdS gene (amdS) and the cbhI 3′ flanking region (cbhI 3′) are included. FIG. 14B. Amino acid sequence of the junction point of the M. albomyces 50KB linked to the T. reesei CBHI linker+CBD (See SEQ ID NOs: 81, 82, 83). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid in the CBD region is indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 15A. The expression cassette used in the transformation of Trichoderma reesei protoplasts for producing the recombinant Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD fusion proteins. The CBHI+CBD gene was under the control of the cbh1 (cel7A) promoter (cbh1 prom) and termination of transcription was ensured by using the cbh1 terminator sequence (term). The amdS gene was included as a transformation marker. FIG. 15B. Amino acid sequence of a junction point at which Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI protein is fused to linker peptide of Trichoderma reesei CBHI followed by the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) (See SEQ ID NOs: 81, 82, 84). The amino acids contained in the linker region are underlined, and the amino acid sequence of the CBD region is marked by italics. The first amino acid in the CBD region is indicated by superscript numbers.

FIG. 16. The performance of strains RF5977 and RF6090 expressing fusion proteins of the invention compared to a commercial 20K preparation in denim treatment. Increase of lightness as a function of enzyme dosage at washing conditions described in Examples 8 and 9.

FIG. 17. Effect of the 20K+CBD fusion proteins and corresponding commercial enzyme preparations on the strength of the denim fabric. FIG. 17A. Tear strength (N), warp. FIG. 17B. Tear strength (N), weft.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is based on efforts to further improve neutral cellulases, in particular those described in WO97/14804, aiming at reducing the loss of the strength of the fabric in the enzyme treatment. In some applications the 20K cellulase has shown undesirable properties in relation to fiber strength, possibly due to the small size. The simple hypothesis was that an increase in the size of the enzyme would decrease the ability of the enzyme to penetrate into the fibers, thereby weakening the fibers to a smaller extent, i.e., the enzyme would be less aggressive. To do this the fusion protein approach suggested in WO97/14804 was used, and fusions constructs containing a neutral cellulase core of a Melanocarpus species and a tail consisting of a linker/CBD of an acid cellobiohydrolase I of T. reesei were designed. Surprisingly, however, contrary to the suggestions of the prior art, fully stable fusion protein constructs could not be obtained, but the fusion partners separated from each other in the culture conditions. This was presumably due to the presence of protease(s).

To produce stable fusion proteins, one approach was to design novel junction constructs having no adjacent hydrophobic amino acids (e.g., V, I, L, F, and W) in order to prevent cleavage by aspartylproteases. However, although the constructs produced fusion proteins, some degradation was occasionally observed.

Based on the alignment of neutral cellulases naturally containing a linker/CBD tail, further constructs were produced and finally these constructs proved to be most stable and most useful for further testing. In addition, fusion constructs were designed which carried mutations in the CBD resulting in reduced or minimal affinity or adsorption to cellulose (Linder et al. 1995).

The novel constructs produced improved strength properties, as was the aim. Surprisingly, the stable cellulase fusion proteins additionally showed unexpected improvement in washing performance, and were as high as even six times as efficient as their “parent” cellulases. However, the production yields maintained at about the same level. This means that only one sixth of the amount of the cellulase activity presently needed is enough for achieving the same washing performance of the prior art cellulase. This produces considerable savings in the production step, and also in the logistics and storage, thereby decreasing the environmental burden. Also the undesired effects of the cellulase preparations are reduced, thereby bringing further savings for the final users of the enzyme product. Considering that about 2 billion pairs of denim jeans are produced annually, and most of them are finished with cellulase, the advantage is highly significant.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a novel cellulase fusion protein comprising

A. an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species, and

B. an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species,

wherein a junction region has been introduced between said first amino acid sequence and said second amino acid sequence, whereby a stable fusion protein is obtained.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the junction region has the following general formula:

¹A-²B-³C-⁴D-⁵E-⁶F

wherein

¹A is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, and Val; preferably ¹A is Gly or Val, most preferably Gly;

²B is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, Phe, Val, Glu, Asp, Gln, and Asn; preferably ²B is Pro, Gln, or Glu;

³C is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Lys, Leu, Pro, Ile, Val, Ser, and Thr; preferably ³C is Ile;

⁴D is selected from a group consisting of Gly, Ala, Leu, Pro, Ile, and Val; preferably ⁴D is Gly or Pro;

⁵E is selected from a group consisting of Ser, Pro and Thr; preferably ⁵E is Ser; and

⁶F is selected from a group consisting of Ser, Thr or is absent, preferably ⁶F is Ser or is absent; wherein ¹A is attached at the C-terminal amino acid sequence of the cellulase core and ⁶F is attached at the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the linker and/or domain (CBD).

In a specially preferred embodiment of the invention the junction region has the following general formula:

¹Gly-²B-³Ile-⁴D-⁵Ser-⁶F (SEQ ID NO: 51)

wherein

²B is Pro, Gln, or Glu;

⁴D is Gly or Pro;

⁵E is Ser; and

⁶F is Ser or is absent.

In another specially preferred embodiment of the invention the junction region has the following general formula:

¹Val-²Gln-³Ile-⁴Pro-⁵Ser-⁶Ser. (SEQ ID NO: 52)

In another specially preferred embodiment of the invention the junction region has the following general formula:

¹Gly-²Glu-³Ile-⁴Gly-⁵Ser. (SEQ ID NO: 53)

In another specially preferred embodiment of the invention the junction region has the following general formula:

¹Gly-²Pro-³Ile-⁴Gly-⁵Ser. (SEQ ID NO: 54)

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the first amino acid sequence is from a neutral cellulase and the second amino acid sequence is from an acid cellulase.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention the first amino acid sequence is from a cellulase of family 45 (Cel 45) and the second amino acid sequence is from cellulase of family 7 (Cel 7).

As used in the present context the expression “cellulase core” or “core” means the catalytic domain/core (CD) of an enzyme expressing cellulase activity. Such a catalytic domain may be in its naturally occurring form (i.e., intact) or, preferably, is modified as defined below. The expressions “derivative” and functional variant denote polypeptides expressing the same cellulase activity but including modifications as defined below.

In the present context conventional one-letter amino acid codes and three-letter amino acid codes are used. Thus, A and Ala denote alanine, R and Arg denote arginine, N and Asn denote asparagine, D and Asp denote aspartic acid, Cys and C denote cysteine, E and Glu denote glutamic acid, Q and Gln denote glutamine, G and Gly denote glycine, H and His denote histidine, I and Ile denote isoleucine, L and Leu denote leucine, K and Lys denote lysine, M and Met denote methionine, F and Phe denote phenylalanine, P and Pro denote proline, S and Ser denote serine, T and Thr denote threonine, W and Trp denote tryptophan, Y and Tyr denote tyrosine, and V and Val denote valine. In addition to naturally occurring L-amino acids, D-amino acids could be used.

In the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention, the neutral cellulase is preferably of fungal origin. The neutral cellulase can be derived from genera of Melanocarpus, Humicola, Thielavia, Myceliophthora, Fusarium, Acremonium, Chrysosporium, Thermoascus, Scopulariopsis, Myriococcum, Talaromyces, or Chaetomium. Specifically preferred are Melanocarpus sp, with Melanocarpus albomyces being especially preferred. The acid cellulase used in the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention originate from Trichoderma sp. or Hypocrea, especially from Trichoderma reesei.

In a specifically preferred embodiment of the invention the first amino acid sequence is 20 K cellulase of Melanocarpus albomyces of SEQ ID. NO: 2 or a derivative thereof, and the second amino acid sequence is the linker and/or CBD of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I of SEQ ID. NO: 4 or a derivative thereof.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention the cellulase fusion proteins contain modifications in cellulase core and/or in the linker and/or CBD. As used in the present context the expression “modified” refers to mutations, such as a deletion, insertion, or substitution of one or more amino acids, or other modifications, such as glycosylations. Examples of such mutations include the substitution of conserved tyrosine residues at positions 31 (corresponding tyrosine Y492 of the mature polypeptide) and/or 32 (corresponding tyrosine Y493 of the mature polypeptide) with an aliphatic amino acid, preferably with alanine, and/or with an aromatic amino acid, such as tryptophan, of CBD of Trichoderma reesei CBHI as described by Linder et al., 1995. Further examples of such mutations include interlinker mutations of Trichoderma reesei CBHI as described by Srisodsuk et al., 1993, such as deletions of amino acids from position 434 to 444 and from position 434 to 460 of the mature Trichoderma CBHI sequence. Further examples of such mutations include the deletion of Ala at position 207, the deletion of Val at position 208, the substitution of Phe209Trp, and insertion of Pro after position 206 in 20 K cellulase sequence of Melanocarpus albomyces of SEQ ID. NO: 2.

The cellulase fusion proteins of the invention are stable. In the context of the present invention the expression “stable cellulase fusion protein” means that at least 20%, preferably at least 40%, more preferably at least 70%, most preferably 90%-100%, of the produced cellulase fusion protein contains uncleaved junction region between the amino acid sequences during the fermentation. This means that 20%-100%, preferably 40%-100%, more preferably 70%-100% of the produced cellulase have the first and the second amino acid sequence fused together. The expression “stable cellulase fusion protein” additionally means that the cellulase fusion protein preparation may be stable as such or has been stabilized by, e.g., heat treatment or adjusting pH or by adding stabilizers or agents reducing protease activity or by separating the fusion protein from the culture. The heat treatment in the present context means a treatment at temperature, which allows the fusion protein in the preparation to be maintained adequately stable. The heat treatment can be, e.g., a treatment at pH 6.0 at 65° C. for 60 to 70 minutes.

In the present context the expression “intact fusion protein” means that the junction between the first and the second amino acid sequence in the fusion protein of the invention remains unbroken, although there may or may not appear terminal degradation in said sequences.

In one preferred embodiment of the cellulase fusion protein of the invention, the first amino acid sequence is a Melanocarpus albomyces 20K sequence having SEQ ID NO: 2 or a functional variant thereof. In another preferred embodiment of the first amino acid sequence is Melanocarpus albomyces 50K sequence having SEQ ID NO: 6 or a functional variant thereof. In another preferred embodiment of the first amino acid sequence is Melanocarpus albomyces 50KB sequence having SEQ ID NO: 8 or a functional variant thereof. In another preferred embodiment of the first amino acid sequence is Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI sequence having SEQ ID NO: 10 or a functional variant thereof. In yet one preferred embodiment of the cellulase fusion protein of the invention the second amino acid sequence is the linker and cellulase binding domain sequence having SEQ ID NO: 4 of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I or a functional variant thereof.

Thus in a highly preferred embodiment of the cellulase fusion protein of the invention, the first amino acid sequence of cellulase core is selected from SEQ ID. NO: 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 43, especially SEQ ID. NO: 39, and the second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or CBD sequence is selected from SEQ ID. NO: 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, and 50. In a special embodiment of the invention, the first amino acid sequence of cellulase core is SEQ ID. NO: 39 and the second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or CBD sequence is SEQ ID. NO: 47, 49, or 50.

The present invention further relates to an expression vector comprising a first polynucleotide sequence encoding an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species, and a second polynucleotide sequence encoding an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and/or cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species, and a polynucleotide encoding a specific junction region connecting said first and second polynucleotide sequences, said polynucleotide sequences encoding the respective amino acid sequences as specifically defined above.

The present invention further relates to cellulase preparations containing one or more cellulase fusion proteins of the invention alone or together with additional enzymes and additives according to the special application in question.

The present invention further relates to the uses of and methods for using the cellulase fusion protein preparations of the invention for purposes specifically disclosed below.

The cellulase fusion protein preparations of the invention are especially useful in the textile and detergent industry. These cellulases show highly improved abrasion effect and visible and measurable increase of lightness. They show acceptable backstaining and good as well as focused contrast in biostoning. They are useful in the textile industry for biofinishing of fabrics or garments, e.g., depilling, defuzzing, color clarification, harshness reduction, creation of different finishes (for example, a ‘peach skin,’ ‘worn out,’ ‘sand washed,’ or ‘antique look’ effect) and for biofinishing of yarn, for example, reduction of hairiness and improvement of smoothness. Additional uses include the use in detergent compositions to improve fabric care properties by antipilling, antigraying, color clarification and softening, and to improve textile cleaning effect, for instance soil removal.

As used in the present context the expression “biostoning” of fabric or garment means the use of enzymes in place of, or in addition to, pumice stones for the treatment of fabric or garment, especially denim.

As used in the present context the expression “biofinishing” refers to the use of enzymes in a controlled hydrolysis of cellulosic fibers in order to modify the fabric or yarn surface in a manner that prevents permanently pilling, improves fabric handle like softness and smoothness, clears the surface structure by reducing fuzzing, which results in clarification of colors, improves the drapability of the fabric, improves moisture absorbability, which may improve also the dyeability.

As used in the present context the expression “backstaining” refers to the tendency of released dye to redeposit on the surface of the fabric fibers.

As used in the present context the expression “detergent” refers to a cleansing agent that can contain surface active agents (anionic, non-ionic, cationic and ampholytic surfactants), builders and other optional ingredients such as anti-redeposition and soil suspension agents, optical brighteners, bleaching agents, dyes and pigments and hydrolases. Suitable listing of the contents of detergents is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,750, a suitable list of surfactants is given in U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,961.

By an amino acid sequence that is an “equivalent” or a “derivative” of a specific amino acid sequence is meant an amino acid sequence that is not identical to the specific amino acid sequence, but rather contains at least some amino acid changes (deletions, substitutions, inversions, insertions, etc) that do not essentially affect the biological activity of the protein as compared to a similar activity of the specific amino acid sequence, when used for a given application.

The biological activity of a cellulase is its catalytic activity, and/or its ability to bind to cellulosic material.

An expression vector is a cloning plasmid or vector capable of expressing DNA encoding the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention after transformation into a desired host. When a fungal host is used, the gene of interest is preferably provided to a fungal host as part of a cloning or expression vehicle that integrates into the fungal chromosome, or allows the gene of interest to integrate into the host chromosome, or as an autonomously replicating plasmid. Sequences that are part of the cloning vehicle or expression vehicle may also be integrated with said DNA during the integration process. In addition, in fungi the expression vector or parts thereof can be targeted into predetermined loci.

The DNA encoding the fusion proteins of the invention is also preferably placed under the control of (i.e., operably linked to) certain control sequences such as promoter sequences provided by the vector (which integrate with the gene of interest). Alternatively, the control sequences can be those at the insertion site.

The expression control sequences of an expression vector will vary depending on whether the vector is designed to express a certain gene in a prokaryotic or in a eukaryotic host (for example, a shuttle vector may provide a gene for selection in bacterial hosts). Expression control sequences can contain transcriptional regulatory elements such as promoters, enhancer elements, and transcriptional termination sequences, and/or translational regulatory elements, such as translational initiation and termination sites.

A polynucleotide molecule, such as DNA, is said to be “capable of expressing” a polypeptide if it contains expression control sequences which contain transcriptional regulatory information and such sequences are “operably linked” to the nucleotide sequence which encodes the polypeptide.

An operable linkage is a linkage in which a sequence is connected to a regulatory sequence (or sequences) in such a way as to place expression of the sequence under the influence or control of the regulatory sequence. Two DNA sequences (such as a promoter region sequence linked to the 5′ end of the protein encoding sequence) are said to be operably linked if function of promoter results in the transcription.

The vectors of the invention may further comprise other operably linked regulatory elements such as enhancer sequences.

In a preferred embodiment, genetically stable transformants are constructed whereby the DNA encoding the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention is integrated into the host chromosome by transformation with a vector, which harbors sequences promoting integration of said vector into the chromosome.

Cells that have stably integrated DNA encoding the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention into their chromosomes are selected by also introducing one or more markers, homologous or heterologous, which allow for selection of host cells which contain the expression vector in the chromosome, for example the marker may provide biocide resistance, e.g., resistance to antibiotics, or heavy metals, such as copper, or markers complementing an auxotrophic mutation in the host chromosome, and the like. The selectable marker gene can either be directly linked to the DNA gene sequences to be expressed, or introduced into the same cell by co-transformation.

Once the vector or DNA sequence of the invention containing the construct(s) is prepared for expression, the DNA construct(s) is introduced into an appropriate host cell by any of a variety of suitable means, including transformation as known in the art. After the introduction of the vector, recipient cells are grown in a selective medium, which selects for the growth of transformed cells.

Suitable expression and production host systems are for example the production system developed for the fungus host Trichoderma (EP 244 234), or Aspergillus production system, such as A. oryzae or A. niger (WO 9708325 and WO 9533386, U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,745, U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,418), or the production system developed for Fusarium, such as F. oxysporum (Malardier et al., 1989). Suitable production systems developed for bacteria are a production system developed for Bacillus, for example B. subtilis or for E. coli, or for actinomycete Streptomyces. Suitable production systems developed for yeasts are systems developed for Saccharomyces, Shizosaccharomyces or Pichia pastoris. Production systems in some other microbes or in mammalian cells or in plants are also possible.

Expression of the cloned gene sequence(s) results in the production of the desired protein, or in the production of a fragment of this protein. This expression can take place in a continuous manner in the transformed cells, or in a controlled manner.

Fragments are understood to be parts of nucleic acid molecules long enough to code for the described protein or a biologically active fragment thereof. The term “derivative” means in this context that the nucleotide sequences of these molecules differ from the sequences of the above-described nucleic acid molecules in one or more positions and are highly homologous to said sequence. Homology is understood to refer to a sequence identity of at least 40%, particularly an identity of at least 60%, preferably more than 80% and still more preferably more than 90%. The deviations from the nucleic acid molecules described above can be the result of deletion, substitution, insertion, addition or combination. Homology furthermore means that the respective nucleotide sequences or encoded proteins are functionally and/or structurally equivalent.

As used in the present context the expressions “enzyme preparation” and “cellulase preparation” refers to any enzyme product, which contains at least one cellulase fusion protein. Thus, such an enzyme preparation may be a spent culture medium or filtrate containing one or more cellulase fusion proteins or one or more cellulase fusion proteins and other enzymes, an isolated cellulase fusion protein or a mixture of one or more cellulase fusion proteins or a mixture of one or more cellulase fusion proteins and one or more other enzymes. In addition to the cellulase fusion protein activity, such a preparation may contain additives, such as stabilizers, buffers, preservatives, surfactants and/or culture medium components. Preferred additives are such, which are commonly used in enzyme preparations intended for the application, where the enzyme preparation is used. The enzyme preparation may be in the form of liquid, powder or granulate.

By “spent culture medium” is here meant the culture medium of the host comprising the produced enzymes. Preferably the host cells are separated from the said medium after the production.

The enzyme preparation may comprise one or more cellulase fusion proteins of the present invention or other cellulase enzymes together with one or more cellulase fusion proteins of the present invention. For example, cellulase fusion proteins having different properties may be combined to make the enzyme preparation more useful for different conditions.

To obtain the enzyme preparations of the invention, the hosts having the desired properties (that is, hosts capable of expressing economically feasible quantities of the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention) are cultivated under suitable conditions, the desired enzymes are secreted from the hosts into the culture medium, and the enzyme preparation is recovered from said culture medium by methods known in the art.

The enzyme preparation may comprise in addition to cellulase fusion protein, one or more other enzymes, which may be for example amylases, laccases and/or peroxidases. Alternatively, before, during or after the treatment with the cellulase fusion protein of the present invention, another enzyme treatment may be carried out. The enzyme treatment may comprise, for example, one or more amylase treatments, one or more cellulase treatments and/or one or more peroxidase and/or laccase treatments. Which other enzymes are included to the enzyme preparation or are used in the enzyme treatment, depends on the application.

The enzyme preparation can be the culture medium with or without the native or transformed host cells, or is recovered from the same by the application of methods well known in the art. However, because the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention are secreted into the culture media and display activity in the ambient conditions of the cellulolytic liquor, it is an advantage of the invention that the enzyme preparations of the invention may be utilized directly from the culture medium with no further purification. If desired, such preparations may be lyophilized or the enzymatic activity otherwise concentrated and/or stabilized for storage. The enzyme preparations of the invention are very economical to provide and use because (1) the enzymes may be used in a crude form; isolation of a specific enzyme from the culture medium is unnecessary and (2) because the enzymes are secreted into the culture medium, only the culture medium need be recovered to obtain the desired enzyme preparation; there is no need to extract an enzyme from the hosts. Preferably the host for such production is Trichoderma, and especially T. reesei.

The enzyme preparations of the invention may be provided as a liquid or as a solid, for example, in a dried powder or granular or liquid form, especially non-dusting granules, or a stabilized liquid, or the enzyme preparation may be otherwise concentrated or stabilized for storage or use. It is envisioned that enzyme preparations containing one or more of the neutral cellulases of the invention can be further enriched or made partially or completely deficient in specific enzymatic activities, so as to satisfy the requirements of a specific utility in various applications e.g., in the textile industry. A mixture of enzyme activities secreted by a host and especially a fungus, can be chosen to be advantageous in a particular industrial application, for example biostoning.

The enzyme preparations of the invention can be adjusted to satisfy the requirements of specific needs in various applications in the textile, detergent or the pulp and paper industry.

Blends may be prepared with other macromolecules that are not necessarily all produced from the same host (for example, other enzymes such as endoglucanases, proteases, lipases, peroxidases, oxidases or amylases) or chemicals that may enhance the performance, stability, or buffering of the desired enzyme preparation. Non-dusting granules may be coated. Liquid enzyme preparations can be stabilized by adding a polyol such as propylene glycol, a sugar or sugar alcohol, lactic acid or boric acid, or sodium chloride, according to established methods.

Protected forms of the enzymes of the invention may be prepared as described in EP 238,216.

The enzyme preparations of the invention can contain a surfactant which can be anionic, non-ionic, cationic, amphoteric or a mixture of these types, especially when used as a detergent composition, Useful detergent compositions are described e.g., in WO 94/07998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,750 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,961.

If required, a desired enzyme may be further purified in accordance with conventional conditions, such as extraction, precipitation, chromatography, affinity chromatography, electrophoresis, or the like.

The enzyme preparations of this invention are especially useful in textile industry preferably in biostoning and in biofinishing or in detergent industry. Other useful areas are in pulp and paper industry.

Stone washing has three steps: desizing, abrasion and after-treatment. The first step, desizing process is normally the first wet treatment of jeans and means the removal of starch or other sizing agents applied usually to the warp yarns to prevent damage during the weaving process. Alpha-amylases are used to remove starch-based size for improved and uniform wet processing. After desizing the jeans are normally rinsed with water or continued directly with the abrasion step.

The second step, abrasion, can be performed with enzymes or pumice stones or both. In all cases mechanical action is needed to remove the dye, and the treatment is usually carried out in washing machines, like drum washers. The term “abraded” means herein the appearance of denim fabric when it has been treated by cellulase enzymes or stones, or both. As a result of uneven dye removal there are contrasts between dyed areas and areas from which dye has been removed. Synonymous expressions are “stone washed look” or “worn look”. In enzymatic stone washing, or biostoning, abrasion with pumice stones is completely or partially eliminated and cellulase is added to facilitate the abrasion of Indigo dye from the fiber surface. The cellulase treatment may be done using neutral or acid cellulases or both. If a fabric is not cellulase treated or stone washed, the appearance of the fabric is said to be “dull”, since the fashionable contrasts would be missing. When more faded effect is desired, bleaching using chemical agents and/or enzymatic methods such as laccase treatment can be carried out.

Abrasion is generally followed by the third step, after-treatment, that includes washing and rinsing steps during which detergents, optical brighteners or softeners may be used. After the enzymatic treatment the reaction must be stopped in order to prevent damage of the treated materials, for example by temperature and/or pH inactivation, the latter comprising a thorough rinsing and/or detergent wash-off. This ensures that the mechanical strength of the fiber is not further compromised by the continued presence of the enzyme.

By “denim” is meant, in connection of this invention, denim fabric, usually denim garments, particularly jeans. Advantageously the denim is Indigo dyed denim. Denim can also be treated with Indigo, with derivatives of Indigo or denim dyed with Indigo together with some other dye, for example Indigo-dyed denim with sulphur bottom.

Treatment with a cellulase(s) can completely replace treatment with pumice stones (for example, 1 kg commercial enzyme vs. 100 kg stones). However, cellulase treatment can be combined with pumice stone treatment when it is desired to produce a heavily abraded finish. A peach skin effect in which a fine protruding hair-like covering is created is also achieved by a wash combining a neutral cellulase with pumice stones. The cellulases of this invention are especially useful to provide abraded look and to minimize backstaining in biostoning.

Biostoning is preferably performed from about pH 4.5-9.5, and most preferably between pH 6.0-8.0. The temperature of the reaction can range from about 40-80° C., preferably between 50-70° C., and more preferably between 55-65° C., and most preferably at 60° C. The liquor ratio (the ratio of the volume of liquid per weight of fabric) may range from about 2:1-30:1 preferably 4:1-15:1, and most preferably 5:1-10:1. The enzyme dosage can range from about 5-8000 NCU/g fabric, preferably 20-3000 NCU/g fabric and most preferably 30-1500 NCU/g fabric. The treatment time can range between 15 min-4 h, more preferably 20 min-90 min and most preferably 30 min-60 min. It should be emphasized that the enzyme dosage depends greatly on the type of the fabrics, machinery, process conditions (pH, temperature, liquor ratio, treatment time, denim load, process scale) and type of enzyme preparation and like. If desired, pumice stones can be used in combination with the fusion cellulase proteins. The enzyme dosage required will then be significantly lower. A person skilled in art is capable in defining suitable dosages and conditions.

The cellulase fusion proteins of the invention are useful in the textile industry for biofinishing of fabrics or garments e.g., depilling, defuzzing, color clarification, harshness reduction, the creation of different finishes (for example, a ‘peach skin,’ ‘wornout,’ ‘sand washed,’ or ‘antique look’ effect) and biofinishing of yarn (for example reduction of hairiness, improvement of smoothness). The cellulase fusion proteins of this invention can be used in biofinishing in acid and in neutral conditions.

The cellulase fusion proteins of this invention are useful in detergent compositions to improve fabric care properties by antipilling, antigraying, color clarification and softening, and to improve textile cleaning effect, for instance soil removal.

The textile material that is treated with the enzyme preparations of the invention may be manufactured of natural cellulose containing fibers or manmade cellulose containing fibers or mixtures thereof. Examples of natural cellulosics are cotton, linen, hemp, jute and ramie. Examples of manmade cellulosics are viscose, cellulose acetate, cellulose triacetate, rayon, cupro and lyocell. The above-mentioned cellulosics can also be employed as blends of synthetic fibers such as polyester, polyamide or acrylic fibers. The textile material may be yarn or knitted or woven or formed by any other means.

The cellulases of the invention, besides being especially useful for the treatment of fabric, are useful in general in any area requiring cellulase activity.

In the pulp and paper industry, neutral cellulases can be used, for example, in deinking of different recycled papers and paperboards having neutral or alkaline pH, in improving the fiber quality, or increasing the drainage in paper manufacture. Other examples include the removal of printing paste thickener and excess dye after textile printing, and as a treatment for animal feed. For example, if the intended application is improvement of the strength of the mechanical pulp, then the enzyme preparations of the invention may provide one or more of these proteins so as to enhance or facilitate the ability of cellulose fibers to bind together. In a similar manner, in the application of pulp refining, the cellulase fusion protein preparations of the invention may provide one or more of these proteins at a level that enhance or facilitate such swelling. Of the fusion proteins of the invention especially suitable for pulp applications are those with a Melanocarpus albomyces 50KB or Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI core.

The cellulase fusion proteins of the present invention provide unexpected advantages when used in textile industry and especially in biostoning. The cellulase fusion proteins of the invention are considerably more efficient than the cellulases of prior art. In biostoning at least two-fold, usually at least three-fold and even six-fold lower dosages in terms of neutral cellulase activity units dosed on the weight of the fabric could be used, without impairing the strength of the fabric. In other words, up to six times higher performance is achieved by using the cellulase fusion proteins of the present invention. Since the production-yield of the cellulase fusion proteins of the invention corresponds to that of the known 20K cellulase, the overall production efficiency is significantly improved. This can be directly proportioned to great savings in the amounts of the enzyme needed: the possibility to use reduced amounts of the enzyme offers a considerable economical value in terms of both the manufacture and use, including the logistics.

The invention is described in more detail in the following examples, which are not be interpreted to narrow the scope of the invention but only to clarify the use of the invention.

Example 1 Construction of the Expression Vectors for 20K+CBD Fusion Proteins

Standard molecular biology methods were used in the isolation, purification and enzyme treatments of DNA (plasmids, DNA fragments), in polymerase chain reactions (PCR), in E. coli transformations, etc. The basic methods used are described in the standard molecular biology handbooks, e.g., Sambrook et al. (1989) and Sambrook and Russell (2001).

Plasmids constructs were designed to join the Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (Cel45A, AC#AJ515703; SEQ ID. NO: 1) coding sequence with the coding sequence of the linker and CBD of the Trichoderma reesei CBHI (AC#AR088330; Srisodsuk et al. 1993; SEQ ID. NO: 3). Altogether six different junctions were designed as described in Table 1.

For constructs #1 and #2 set forth in Table 1, a unique NruI site was introduced at the end of the 20K coding sequence. This site enables direct fusion after the codon for the serine #213 of the mature 20K with any DNA fragment with a blunt end. A PCR reaction was run with the primers 20K_Nco (SEQ ID NO: 11) and 20K_NruXho (SEQ ID NO: 14) with the plasmid pALK1480 (FIG. 1) as the template using the program A (Table 3). pALK1480 has the genomic copy of the M. albomyces cel45A (encoding the Cel45A or 20K) inserted under the T. reesei cbh1 promoter as an exact fusion and having the cbh1 terminator downstream the gene in the pUC19 vector (New England Biolabs, Inc., USA). The PCR reaction mixture contained 1× DyNAzyme™ EXT reaction buffer (Finnzymes, Finland), 8 mM Mg²⁺ (the final concentration adjusted with added MgCl₂), 0.2 mM dNTPs, 0.5 μM of each primer, 1.0 units of DyNAzyme™ EXT DNA polymerase (Finnzymes, Finland), and approximately 50 ng/100 μl of the template. The PCR product was digested with NcoI and XhoI restriction enzymes and the fragment was isolated from the agarose gel after electrophoresis. The similarly cut and isolated 6.1 kb fragment of pALK1480 was ligated with the PCR fragment, and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). The plasmid DNA was isolated from the transformants, and one suitable candidate was verified by sequencing. The resulting plasmid was designated as pALK1429.

PCR reactions were performed separately as above with primer pairs 1_BamMly (SEQ ID NO: 16)+XhoAge (SEQ ID NO: 15) and 2_BamMly (SEQ ID NO: 17)+XhoAge (SEQ ID NO: 15) with pALK492 as the template (FIG. 2), and the resulting PCR products, containing the linker and CBD, were digested with MlyI (producing a blunt end just before the desired first codon of the coding sequence of the linker and CBD) and AgeI. pALK492 carries about 6.9 kb PstI fragment of T. reesei QM6a chromosomal DNA harboring the cbh1/cel7A gene subcloned into the PstI site of pUC19. pALK1429 obtained above was digested with NruI and AgeI, and the vector part was isolated and ligated separately with the two digested PCR products obtained above, and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue. Plasmid DNAs were isolated, verified by sequencing and the resulting plasmids were designated as pALK1430 (carrying the 1_BamMly+XhoAge PCR product as an insert) and as pALK1431 (carrying the 2_BamMly+XhoAge PCR product as an insert).

TABLE 1 Different junctions constructed between the Melanocarpus albomyces 20K and the Trichoderma reesei CBHI linker + CBD. 20K-core linker + CBD template pALK1480 template pALK492 Plasmid Construct # Core-linker junctions 5′ primer 3′ primer 5′ primer 3′ primer constructions 1 ...hddggfavfkaps.- 20K_NcoI 20K- 1_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1434 <- gstgn... NruXho_GPI pALK1430 <- (SEQ ID NO: 55) pALK1429 2 ...hddggfavfkaps.- 20K_NcoI 20K- 2_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1435 <- ggnppg... NruXho_GPI pALK1431 <- (SEQ ID NO: 56) pALK1429 3 ...hddggfa.fGPIgs- 20K_NcoI_2 20K- 3_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1768 <- tgn... NruXho_GPI pALK1764 <- (SEQ ID NO: 57) pALK1758 4 ...hddggfWGEIgs- 20K_NcoI_3 20K- 3_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1769 <- tgn... NruXho_WGEI pALK1765 <- (SEQ ID NO: 58) pALK1759 5 ...hddggfPavQIPSs- 20K_NcoI_2 20K- 3_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1770 <- G tgn... NruXho_PavQIPS pALK1766 <- (SEQ ID NO: 59) pALK1760 6 ...hddggfaWGEIgs- 20K_NcoI_3 20K-NruXho_WGEI-2 3_BamMly_oligo XhoAge_oligo pALK1775 <- tgn... pALK1774 <- (SEQ ID NO: 60) pALK1773 In second column, the leftmost part is the Melanocarpus derived sequence and the rightmost is the Trichoderma derived sequence. Lower cases indicate original sequences, upper cases indicate the modified sequence, period (.) indicate a deleted amino acid and a hyphen indicates the junction point joined by ligating the relevant plasmids. First amino acid of the Melanocarpus sequence is histidine #201 of the mature sequence and in constructs #1, #3, #4 and #6 the first amino acid of the Trichoderma sequence is glycine #427, in construct #2 glycine #434 and in construct #5 serine #428 of the mature sequence.

TABLE 2 Primers used Length Sequence Primer nts Sequence ID NO: 20K_Nco 27 5′-TACGCCATGGTCGTCCAGTCGACCAGC 11 20K_Nco_2 35 5′-TACGCCATGGTCGTCCAGTCGACCAGCACGGGCGG 12 20K_Nco_3 46 5′-TACGCCATGGTCGTCCAGTCGACCAGCACGGGCGGCGACCTCGGCA 13 20K_NruXho 40 5′-CGTACTCGAGTCATCGCGAGGGGGCCTTGAAGACGGCGAA 14 XhoAge 30 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGC 15 1_BamMly 34 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCCATTGGCAGCACCGGCAACC 16 2_BamMly 36 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCTAGCGGCGGCAACCCTCCCGGC 17 3_BamMly 34 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCCATTACCGGCAACCCTAGCG 18 20K-NruXho_GPI 55 5′-CGTACTCGAGTCATCGCGAGCCGATGGGGCCGAAGGCGAAGCCGCCGTCGTCGTG 19 20K-NruXho_WGEI 52 5′-CGTACTCGAGTCATCGCGAGCCGATCTCGCCCCAGAAGCCGCCGTCGTCGTG 20 20K-NruXho_PavQIPS 58 5′CGTACTCGAGTCATCGCGACGAGGGGATCTGGACGGCGGGGAAGCCGCCGTCGTCGTG 21 20K-NruXho_WGEI-2 52 5′-CGTACTCGAGTCATCGCGAGCCGATCTCGCCCCAGGCGAAGCCGCCGTCGTC 22 50KB_NruIXhoI 37 5′-TCGTCTCGAGTCGCGATGGGGCCGAAGCGGATGTTGG 23 50KB_SphI 31 5′-GGAGGGCATGCCCAACAGCAGCGAGATCACC 24 2_50K_NruISpeI 38 5′-CGGCACTAGTTCGCGACCCGATCTCGCCCCAGCGCAGG 25 50K_XhoI 26 5′ CGCCGAGGGCCGGCTCGAGAGCATCC 26

TABLE 3 PCR reaction programs used Program Step A B C D 1 95° C. 5 min 95° C. 5 min 98° C. 1 min 98° C. 1 min 2 95° C. 1 min 95° C. 1 min 98° C. 30 s 98° C. 30 s 3 55° C. 1 min 60° C. 1 min 72° C. 1 min 65° C. 30 s 4 72° C. 1 min 72° C. 1 min GOTO 2 29x 72° C. 1 min 5 GOTO 2 24x GOTO 2 24x 72° C. 10 min GOTO 2 29x 6  4° C. HOLD 72° C. 1 min  4° C. HOLD 72° C. 10 min 7  4° C. HOLD  4° C. HOLD

The amdS marker and T. reesei cbh1 3′ flanking region were inserted into vectors pALK1430 and pALK1431 as follows: pALK424 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,51; FIG. 3) was cut with EcoRI and SpeI, the resulting 4.8 kb fragment was made blunt by the Klenow fill-in reaction, and ligated separately with plasmids pALK1430 and pALK1431 cut with StuI, respectively, and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue. The plasmid DNAs were isolated and the desired orientation of the inserts was checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes. The verified plasmids were designated as pALK1434 (insert from pALK1430) and pALK1435 (insert from pALK1431), respectively (Table 1).

For constructs #3, #4, #5 and #6 set forth in Table 1a different approach was taken. The coding sequence of the 20K and the different modified junction points (Table 1) were designed to end at the serine endocing codon, which forms a part of the added NruI site. For all these constructs the same insert was used to provide the coding sequence of the major part of the linker and CBD. The latter was constructed as follows. A PCR reaction was performed with the reaction mixture described above (except without added Mg²⁺) and using the primer pair 3_BamMly (SEQ ID NO: 18) and XhoAge (SEQ ID NO: 15) and pALK492 DNA as the template. The program B in Table 3 was used. The resulting PCR product was digested with BamHI and XhoI, isolated and ligated with the similarly cut vector part of pBluescript II KS+ (Stratagene, USA), and transformed into E. coli XL1 Blue. The plasmid DNA was isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. One plasmid candidate with the desired sequence was chosen and designated as pALK1767.

For construct #3 in Table 1a PCR reaction was performed using the primer pair 20K_Nco_(—)2 (SEQ ID NO: 12) and 20K-NruXho_GPI (SEQ ID NO: 19) and pALK1480 DNA as the template. Two reaction mixtures were used: one with the composition described above for the construction of pALK1767, and the other with added DMSO to 3% (v/v). These two reaction mixtures were split, and run with programs C and D in Table 3. All reactions produced DNA fragments of expected size, and the preparations were combined and digested with NcoI and XhoI. The DNA fragment were isolated and ligated with a similarly cut and isolated 6.1 kb fragment of pALK1480, and transformed into E. coli XL1 Blue. The plasmid DNA was isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. One plasmid candidate with the desired sequence was chosen and designated as pALK1758.

For construct #4 in Table 1a PCR reaction was performed using the primer pair 20K_Nco_(—)3 (SEQ ID NO: 13) and 20K-NruXho_WGEI (SEQ ID NO: 20) and pALK1480 DNA as the template. The PCR reaction mixture contained 1× Phusion™ GC reaction buffer (Finnzymes, Finland), 0.2 mM dNTPs, 0.5 μM of each primer, 3% (v/v) DMSO and 1.0 units of Phusion™ DNA polymerase (Finnzymes, Finland) and approximately 70 ng/100 μl of the template. The reaction mixture was split, and run with programs C and D in Table 3. Both reactions produced DNA fragments of expected size, and the preparations were combined and digested with NcoI and XhoI. The DNA fragment was isolated and ligated with a similarly cut and isolated 6.1 kb fragment of pALK1480, and transformed into E. coli XL1 Blue. The plasmid DNA were isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. One plasmid candidate with the desired sequence was chosen and designated as pALK1759.

For construct #5 in Table 1a PCR reaction was performed using the primer pair 20K_Nco_(—)2 (SEQ ID. NO: 12) and 20K-NruXho_PavQIPS (SEQ ID. NO: 21) and pALK1480 DNA as the template. Two reaction mixtures were used: one with the composition described above for the construction of pALK1759, and the other without the DMSO. These two reaction mixtures were split, and run with programs C and D in Table 3. All reactions produced DNA fragments of expected size, and the preparations were combined and digested with NcoI and XhoI. The DNA fragment was isolated and ligated with the similarly cut and isolated 6.1 kb fragment of pALK1480, and transformed into E. coli XL1 Blue. The plasmid DNAs were isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. One plasmid candidate was chosen and designated as pALK1760; it had acquired a mutation in the unique XhoI site, but this posed no problem for further subcloning.

For construct #6 in Table 1a PCR reaction was performed using the primer pair 20K_Nco_(—)3 (SEQ ID. NO: 13) and 20K-NruXho_WGEI-2 (SEQ ID. NO: 22) and pALK1480 DNA as the template (70 ng/100 μl). The same reaction mixture composition was used as for the construction of plasmid pALK1767, and it was run with the program C in Table 3. The preparation was digested with NcoI and XhoI. The DNA fragment was isolated and ligated with a similarly cut and isolated 6.1 kb fragment of pALK1480, and transformed into E. coli XL1 Blue. The plasmid DNAs were isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. One plasmid candidate was chosen and designated as pALK1773.

Plasmids pALK1758, pALK1759, pALK1760 and pALK1773 were separately cut with NruI and AgeI, and the vector parts were isolated. Each preparation was ligated with a 235 by fragment isolated from pALK1767 after MlyI and AgeI digestion, and each ligation mixture was transformed separately into E. coli XL10-Gold. The plasmid DNAs were isolated, checked by digestion with appropriate restriction enzymes and verified by sequencing. The verified plasmids were designated as pALK1764, pALK1765, pALK1766, and pALK1774, respectively (Table 1).

The amdS marker and T. reesei cbh1 3′ flanking region were inserted into vectors pALK1764, pALK1765, pALK1766, and pALK1774 as follows: pALK424 was cut with EcoR1 and Spe1, the resulting 4.8 kb fragment was made blunt by the Klenow fill-in reaction, and ligated separately with plasmids pALK1764, pALK1765, pALK1766, and pALK1774 cut with StuI, respectively, and transformed into E. coli XL10-Gold. Plasmid DNAs were isolated and the desired orientation of the inserts was checked by digestion of appropriate restriction enzymes. The verified plasmids were designated as pALK1768, pALK1769, pALK1770, and pALK1775, respectively (Table 1) (FIG. 10).

Example 2 Production of the Fusion 20K+CBD Proteins in T. reesei

8.7 kb linear expression cassettes from the plasmids pALK1434 and pALK1435 were isolated from the vector backbone after EcoRI digestion and transformed to T. reesei A47 protoplasts. The transformations were performed as described in Pentla et al. (1987) with the modifications described in Karhunen et al. (1993) selecting with acetamide as the sole nitrogen source. The transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD (Potato Dextrose Agar).

The 20K+CBD production of the transformants was analysed from the culture supernatants of the shake flask cultivations (50 ml). The transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulase-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The enzyme activity of the fusion protein was measured as the release of reducing sugars from carboxymethylcellulose (3% CMC) at 50° C. in 50 mM Hepes buffer pH 7.0 in 10 min (NCU activity, nkat; Bailey and Nevalainen, 1981; Haakana et al., 2004). NCU activities of the best producing transformants are presented in Table 4. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were confirmed by using Southern blots, in which several genomic digests were included and the respective expression cassette was used as a probe. The 20K+CBD protein was detected from the culture supernatants using the polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified Melanocarpus albomyces 20K neutral cellulase (Haakana et al. 2004) and the ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega). The Western blot analyses showed that the fusion 20K+CBD enzymes were produced mainly as stable fusion proteins in T. reesei.

TABLE 4 NCU activities of the selected 20K + CBD transformants from shake flask cultivations. Neutral cellulase Endogenous Construction RF activity, cellulase Transformant No. Number NCU/ml phenotype A47/pALK1434/#20 #1 RF5580 3278 CBHI− A47/pALK1434/#23 #1 RF5581 2091 (CBHI+) A47/pALK1434/#37 #1 RF5582 2330 CBHI− A47/pALK1435/#3 #2 RF5583 3624 CBHI− A47/pALK1435/#7 #2 RF5584 3211 CBHI− A47/pALK1435/#11 #2 RF5585 1172 (CBHI+) A47/pALK1435/#14 #2 RF5586 3152 CBHI−

In Table 4, the construction number refers to Table 1; RF number refers to that the transformants were named as RF strains.

The possible targeting of the expression cassette to the cbh1 (cel7A) locus was screened as a CBHI-negative phenotype by Western blot. The detection of the CBHI protein was performed using the monoclonal antibodies CI-258 or CI-261 (Aho et al., 1991) and the ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega, USA). The genotypes of the chosen transformants were confirmed by using Southern blots, in which several genomic digests were included and the respective expression cassette was used as a probe.

8.7 kb linear expression cassettes from the plasmids pALK1768, pALK1769, pALK1770, and pALK1775 prepared in Example 1 were isolated from the vector backbone after EcoRI digestion and transformed to T. reesei RF5796 and RF5798 protoplasts (both strains originating from the strain QM6a (Bailey and Nevalainen, 1981) and having the phenotype CBHI- CBHII- EGI- EGII- for the endogenous T. reesei cellulases) selecting with acetamide as the sole nitrogen source. The transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD.

The 20K+CBD production of the transformants was analyzed from the culture supernatants of the shake flask cultivations (50 ml). The transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulase-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The NCU activity of the produced 20K+CBD fusion proteins was then assayed as described above. NCU activities of the selected transformants are presented in Table 5. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were confirmed by using Southern blots in which several genomic digests were included and the respective expression cassette was used as a probe. The 20K+CBD protein was detected from the culture supernatants using the polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified M. albomyces 20K neutral cellulase (Haakana et al. 2004) and the ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega, USA). The Western blot analyses showed that the fusion 20K+CBD enzyme was produced by the transformants. Some cultures showed also a band reacting with the anti-20K antiserum, and having the mobility of the wild type 20K protein, indicating that possibly some cleavage of the linker+CBD had taken place during the cultivation. The 20K+CBD fusion protein produced by the pALK1770 transformants was chosen further studies due to its stability.

TABLE 5 NCU activities of the selected 20K + CBD transformants from shake flask cultivations. RF Neutral cellulase Transformant Construction No. number activity, NCU/ml RF5796/pALK1768/#6 #3 RF5966 3622 RF5796/pALK1768/#7 #3 RF5967 1316 RF5796/pALK1768/#9 #3 RF6035 6605 RF5798/pALK1768/#11 #3 RF5970 1525 RF5798/pALK1768/#17 #3 RF5971 2885 RF5798/pALK1768/#20 #3 RF5972 2598 RF5796/pALK1769/#7 #4 RF5968 4344 RF5796/pALK1769/#10 #4 RF5969 4858 RF5796/pALK1769/#11 #4 RF6036 6145 RF5798/pALK1769/#4 #4 RF5973 4505 RF5798/pALK1769/#8 #4 RF5974 4895 RF5796/pALK1770/#13 #5 RF5975 3073 RF5796/pALK1770/#17 #5 RF5976 2256 RF5796/pALK1770/#22 #5 RF5977 2107 RF5798/pALK1770/#10 #5 RF5978 1907 RF5798/pALK1770/#14 #5 RF5979 3661 RF5796/pALK1775/#8 #6 RF6078 2431 RF5796/pALK1775/#13 #6 RF6079 3505 RF5796/pALK1775/#21 #6 RF6080 2541 RF5798/pALK1775/#22 #6 RF6081 1697 RF5798/pALK1775/#29 #6 RF6082 3096

In Table 5, the construction number refers to Table 1; RF number refers to that the transformants were named as RF strains.

T. reesei strains RF5582, RF5583, RF6036, RF5977, and RF5978 were grown in a bioreactor for applications tests. Some preparations were heat treated (pH 6.0, 65° C., 60-70 min) in order to inactivate any remaining T. reesei endogenous enzyme activity. The 20K+CBD is relatively heat stable (Miettinen-Oinonen et al. 2004), and does not denature during the treatment.

Example 3 Production of the Fusion 20K+CBD Affinity Mutant Proteins in T. reesei

Melanocarpus albomyces 20K (cel45A, AC#AJ515703) enzyme was fused to the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) of Trichoderma reesei CBHI, in which the conserved tyrosine residues at positions 31 (corresponding to Y492 of the mature polypeptide) and/or 32 (corresponding to Y493 of the mature polypeptide) were mutated to alanine as described by Linder et al., 1995. In addition, the tyrosine residue at position 31 was replaced by tryptophan, an amino acid naturally found in the CBD region of e.g., Humicola grisea CBHI (Azevedo et al., 1990) and T. reesei EGV (Cel45A, Saloheimo et al., 1994). The mutated CBDs were constructed by PCR, and the amino acid substitutions of Y31A, Y32A, Y31W and Y31A_Y32A were included in the cellulose-binding domain of T. reesei CBHI (numbering according to amino acid sequence of CBD). In all constructs, the forward primer 3_BamMly: 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCCATTACCGGCAACCCTAGCG-3′ (SEQ ID. NO: 18) was used. The reverse primers used for the amplification of different CBD_(mut) products are described in Table 6. The PCR reaction mixtures contained 1×PfuUltra™ HF reaction buffer (Stratagene, USA) providing 2 mM Mg²⁺ concentration, 0.2 mM dNTPs, 2 μM of each primer and 1.5 units of PfuUltra™ HF DNA polymerase (Stratagene, USA) and approximately 45 ng of pALK492 plasmid as a template. The pALK492 (FIG. 2) plasmid contains the T. reesei cbh1 gene. The conditions for the PCR reactions were the following: 2 min initial denaturation at 95° C., followed by 30 cycles of 1 min at 95° C., 1 min annealing at 65° C. (±5° C. gradient), 2 min extension at 72° C. and a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min.

TABLE 6 Reverse PCR primers designed for amplifying mutated CBD products. Length Amino acid Sequence Primer (nts) Sequence, reverse substitution Id. No XhoAge_Y31A 69 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTTACAGGCACT Y31A SEQ ID. NO: 27 GAGAGTAGGCAGGGTTCAGG XhoAge_Y32A 69 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTTACAGGCACT Y32A SEQ ID. NO: 28 GAGAGGCGTAAGGGTTCAGG XhoAge_Y31W 69 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTTACAGGCACT Y31W SEQ ID. NO: 29 GAGAGTACCAAGGGTTCAGG XhoAge_Y31A-Y32A 69 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTTACAGGCA Y31A_Y32A SEQ ID. NO: 30 CTGAGAGGCGGCAGGGTTCAGG

All primer combinations produced the specific DNA fragment in PCR reactions at annealing temperature of 60° C. The PCR products were isolated from these reactions, digested with XhoI and BamHI restriction enzymes and then cloned to pBluescript II KS+ (Stratagene, USA). The plasmids obtained were named as pALK1884 (Y31A mutation), pALK1885 (Y32A mutation), pALK1886 (Y31W mutation) and pALK1887 (Y31A_Y32A mutations). The PCR fragments in the plasmids were confirmed by sequencing. The MlyI and AgeI digested inserts of the plasmids pALK1884 to pALK1887 were further ligated to a NruI and AgeI digested pALK1760 vector fragment containing the full-length Melanocarpus albomyces 20K gene fused to the T. reesei cbh1 (cel7A) promoter and terminator. The C-terminal part of the 20K gene in pALK1760 was modified so that ligation of the CBD fragment produced a junction point of PAVQIPSS (construct #5), which was shown to result in a stable fusion product in T. reesei as described in Examples 1 and 2. At the final step, the amdS marker was added as a blunt-ended SpeI-EcoRI fragment (4.5 kb) of p3SR2 plasmid (FIG. 6) to obtain expression plasmids of pALK1877 (Y31A mutation), pALK1878 (Y32A mutation), pALK1879 (Y31W mutation), and pALK1880 (Y31A_Y32A mutation) for production of fusion 20K+CBD_(mut) enzymes in T. reesei. The amino acid sequences of the 20K protein fusion to linker peptide followed by the mutated CBD region are presented in FIG. 11B. The expression plasmids were confirmed by sequencing, and the 8.4 kb linear expression cassettes (FIG. 11A) were isolated from the vector backbone after NotI digestion and were transformed to T. reesei RF5796 protoplasts. The transformations were performed in Penttilä et al. (1987) with the modifications described in Karhunen et al. (1993), selecting with acetamide as a sole nitrogen source. The transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD.

The 20K+CBD_(mut) production of the transformants was analysed from the culture supernatants of the shake flask cultivations (50 ml). The transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulase-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The enzyme activity of the fusion protein was measured as the release of reducing sugars from carboxymethylcellulose (3% CMC) at 50° C. in 50 mM Hepes buffer pH 7.0 in 10 min (NCU activity, nkat; Bailey and Nevalainen, 1981; Haakana et al., 2004). NCU activities of the best producing transformants are presented in Table 7. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were confirmed by using Southern blots in which several genomic digests were included and the respective expression cassette was used as a probe. The 20K+CBD_(mut) protein was detected from the culture supernatants using polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified Melanocarpus albomyces 20K neutral cellulase (Haakana et al. 2004) and the ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega). The Western blot analyses showed that the fusion 20K+CBD_(mut) enzymes were produced as stable fusion proteins in T. reesei.

TABLE 7 NCU activities of the selected 20K + CBD_(mut) transformants from shake flask cultivation Amino acid Neutral cellulase Transformant substitution RF number activity, NCU/ml pALK1877/#26 Y31A RF6084 3658 pALK1877/#34 Y31A RF6085 2447 pALK1878/#02 Y32A RF6086 3434 pALK1878/#13 Y32A RF6088 2915 pALK1879/#13 Y31W RF6090 2545 pALK1879/#24 Y31W RF6091 3452 pALK1880/#06 Y31A_Y32A RF6092 3415 pALK1880/#25 Y31A_Y32A RF6094 2727

RF number refers to that the transformants were named as RF strains.

The strains RF6084 to RF6086, RF6088, RF6090 to RF6092 and RF6094 were fermented to obtain material for the application tests (see EXAMPLES 9-11).

Example 4 Production of the Fusion 20K+CBD Linker Deletion Proteins in T. reesei

Melanocarpus albomyces 20K enzyme was fused to the cellulose-binding domain (═CBD) of Trichoderma reesei CBHI, which was further modified by introducing deletions to the interdomain linker peptide. Linker deletions were designed according to Srisodsuk et al., 1993. Deletion of amino acids from position 434 to 444 (Mutant ΔG-444) of the mature polypeptide removes approximately one-third of the linker including the glycine- and proline-rich repeated sequence but leaving all the putative O-glycosylation sites intact. Deletion of residues from position 434 to 460 (Mutant ΔG-460) removes practically all of the linker (FIG. 12A). Additional 20K+CBD linker deletions having an affinity double mutation of Y31A_Y32A in the CBD region were also constructed.

PCR reactions were performed to introduce the deletions to linker peptide as well as the amino acid substitution to the CBD region. The PCR amplifications were done as described in Example 3, except that the annealing temperature of 60° C. (±5° C. gradient) was used. The forward primers

(SEQ ID. NO: 31) 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCCATTACCGGCAACCCTAGCACCACCACCA- CCCGCCGCCCAGCC-3′ and (SEQ ID. NO: 32) 5′-TAGGATCCGAGTCCCATTACCGGCAACCCTAGCCC- TACCCAGTCTCACTACGGCCAGTGC-3′

were used for synthesizing the linker deletions of ΔG-444 and ΔG-460, respectively. Correspondingly, the reverse primer

(SEQ ID. NO: 33) 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTTACAGG-3

was used to amplify the intact CBD region of the T. reesei CBHI. The Y31A_Y32A mutation to the CBD region was generated with the reverse primer

(SEQ ID. NO: 30) 5′-TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTT- TACAGGCACTGAGAGGCGGCAGGGTTCAGG-3′

All primer combinations produced the specific DNA fragment in PCR reactions from 55.2° C. to 65.0° C. range of annealing temperatures. Expression plasmids pALK1893 (ΔG-444 deletion), pALK1896 (ΔG-460 deletion), pALK1899 (ΔG-444 deletion, Y31A_Y32A mutation), and pALK1952 (ΔG-460 deletion, Y31A_Y32A mutation) were constructed as described in Example 3. The amino acid sequences of the 20K protein fusion to truncated linker peptide followed by the intact or mutated CBD are presented in FIG. 12B. The 8.3 kb linear expression cassettes were isolated from the vector backbone after EcoRI digestion and were transformed to T. reesei RF5796 protoplasts. Transformation, transformant purification, shake flask cultivations, activity measurements, Southern blot hybridizations, and Western blot analyses were performed as described in Example 3.

TABLE 8 NCU activities of the selected 20K + CBD linker deletion transformants from shake flask cultivation Linker Deletion/ Amino acid Neutral cellulase Transformant substitution RF number activity, NCU/ml pALK1893/#08 ΔG-444 RF6107 1182 pALK1893/#10 ΔG-444 RF6108 2058 pALK1896/#05 ΔG-460 RF6110 2576 pALK1896/#07 ΔG-460 RF6111 2628 pALK1899/#07 ΔG-444, Y31A_Y32A RF6112 1947 pALK1899/#20 ΔG-444, Y31A_Y32A RF6114 2462 pALK1952/#01 ΔG-460, Y31A_Y32A RF6115 2428 pALK1952/#17 ΔG-460, Y31A_Y32A RF6116 1738

RF number refers to that the transformants were named as RF strains.

The selected strains RF6107, RF6108, RF6110 to RF6112, and RF6114 to RF6116 were fermented to obtain material for the application tests (Examples 9 to 11). The Western blot analyses showed that the fusion 20K+CBD linker deletion enzymes were produced as stable fusion proteins in T. reesei.

Example 5 Production of the Recombinant Melanocarpus albomyces 50K+CBD Fusion Protein in T. reesei

Plasmid constructs were designed to join the Melanocarpus albomyces 50K (cel7A, AC#AJ515704) coding sequence with the linker region and cellulose binding domain (CBD) of the T. reesei CBHI (cel7A, AC#AR088330; Srisodsuk et al. 1993). Plasmid pALK1237 (FIG. 4), which is a basis for the new constructs, contains the cel7A gene under control of T. reesei cbh1 promoter as an exact fusion.

First, a unique NruI restriction site was introduced near the C-terminus of the 50K coding sequence. This enables direct fusion of any blunt-ended DNA after amino acid S393 of the mature 50K polypeptide (FIG. 13B). A PCR reaction was performed with primers 2_(—)50K_NruISpeI (5′ CGGCACTAGTTCGCGACCCGATCTCGCCCCAGCGCAGG 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 25) and 50K_XhoI (5′ CGCCGAGGGCCGGCTCGAGAGCATCC 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 26) using pALK1237 as a template. The PCR reaction contained 1× DyNAzyme™ EXT reaction buffer (Finnzymes, Finland), 0.25 mM dNTPs, 0.5 μM of each primer, 2.0 units of DyNAzyme™ EXT DNA polymerase (Finnzymes, Finland) and approximately 50 ng/100 μl of pALK1237 template DNA. The conditions for PCR amplification was as follows: 5 min initial denaturation at 96° C., followed by 25 cycles of 15 s at 96° C., 60 s annealing at 56° C. or 61° C., 60 s extension at 72° C., and a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min. The PCR product was digested with XhoI and SpeI restriction enzymes and purified from the agarose gel. The purified PCR fragment was ligated into the 6.9 kb XhoI-SpeI restriction fragment of plasmid pALK1237 and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Plasmid DNA was isolated from the transformants and three candidates were verified by sequencing. The selected clone was designated as pALK1703.

The T. reesei CBHI linker+CBD was amplified by PCR with primers 3_BamMly_(—)50 (5′ TTGGATCCGAGTCGCAGCACCGGCAACCCTAGCG 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 36) and XhoAge (5′ TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGC 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 15) using pALK492 as a template. The PCR reaction conditions were as described above, except that the extension time in the amplification reaction was 90 s. The PCR product was digested with MlyI and AgeI enzymes and purified from the agarose gel. The linker+CBD containing PCR fragment was ligated into the 6.8 kb AgeI-NruI restriction fragment of pALK1703 and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Transformants were analyzed as described above and a suitable clone was designated as pALK1704.

To enable selection of T. reesei transformants the amdS marker gene and the T. reesei cbhI 3′ flanking region was inserted into the vector plasmid pALK1704. A 4.8 kb EcoRI-SpeI restriction fragment of pALK424 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,515) was isolated and the fragment ends were filled-in with Klenow enzyme. The blunt-ended amdS marker fragment was ligated into the StuI digested pALK1704 and transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Plasmid DNA was isolated from transformants and the desired orientation of the insert was verified by restriction enzyme digestion. The selected transformant was designated as pALK1708.

A 9.2 kb linear expression cassette (FIG. 13A) from pALK1708 backbone was isolated by EcoRI digestion, transformed into T. reesei RF5636 protoplasts (derived from the strain QM6a; Bailey and Nevalainen, 1981), and transformants selected with acetamide as sole nitrogen source. The host strain lacks three major endogenous cellulases: CBHII (Cel6A), EGI (Cel7B) and EGII (Cel5A). Transformation was performed according to Penttilä et al. (1987) with modifications described by Karhunen et al. (1993). Transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD.

The production of 50K+CBD fusion protein of the transformants was analyzed from the culture supernatants of shake flask cultivations (50 ml). Transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulose-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The enzyme activity of the fusion protein was measured as the release of reducing sugars from carboxymethylcellulose (3% CMC) at 50° C. in 50 mM Hepes buffer pH 7.0 (NCU activity; Bailey and Nevalainen 1981; Haakana et al. 2004). The activity of the transformants varied from 2035 to 3633 NCU/ml. The 50K+CBD protein was detected from the culture supernatants by ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega) using polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified Melanocarpus albomyces 50K neutral cellulase (Haakana et al. 2004). The Western blot analysis showed that the 50K+CBD fusion protein produced from T. reesei is stable. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were analysed by Southern blotting using the expression cassette as a probe. The possible targeting of the expression cassette to the cbhI locus was also verified by Western blotting using monoclonal CBHI antibodies (CI-261, Aho et al. 1991) to detect CBHI protein.

Example 6 Production of the Recombinant Melanocarpus albomyces 50KB+CBD Fusion Protein in T. reesei

Plasmid constructs were designed to join the Melanocarpus albomyces 50KB (cel7B, AC#AJ515705) coding sequence with the linker region and cellulose binding domain (CBD) of the T. reesei CBHI (cel7A, AC#AR088330; Srisodsuk et al. 1993). Plasmid pALK1241 (FIG. 5), which is a basis for the new constructs, contains the cel7B gene under control of T. reesei cbh1 promoter as an exact fusion.

First, a unique NruI restriction site was introduced near the C-terminus of the 50KB coding sequence. This enables direct fusion of any blunt-ended DNA after amino acid S426 of the mature 50KB polypeptide (FIG. 14B). A PCR reaction was performed with primers 50KB_NruIXhoI (5′ TCGTCTCGAGTCGCGATGGGGCCGAAGCGGATGTTGG 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 23) and 50KB_SphI (5′ GGAGGGCATGCCCAACAGCAGCGAGATCACC 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 24) using pALK1241 as a template. The PCR reaction contained 1× DyNAzyme™ EXT reaction buffer (Finnzymes, Finland), 0.25 mM dNTPs, 0.5 μM of each primer, 2.0 units of DyNAzyme™ EXT DNA polymerase (Finnzymes, Finland) and approximately 50 ng/100 μl of pALK1241 template DNA. The conditions for PCR amplification was as follows: 5 min initial denaturation at 96° C., followed by 25 cycles of 15 s at 96° C., 60 s annealing at 56° C. or 60° C., 60 s extension at 72° C., and a final extension at 72° C. for 5 min. The PCR product was digested with XhoI and SphI restriction enzymes and purified from the agarose gel. The purified PCR fragment was ligated into the 6.9 kb XhoI-SphI restriction fragment of plasmid pALK1241 and transformed into E. coli XL 1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Plasmid DNA was isolated from the transformants and one candidate was verified by sequencing. The selected clone was designated as pALK1705.

The T. reesei CBHI linker+CBD was amplified by PCR with primers 3_BamMly_(—)50 (5′ TTGGATCCGAGTCGC AGCACCGGCAACCCTAGCG 3′; SEQ ID. NO: 18) and XhoAge (5′ TGACTCGAGACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGC 3′; SEQ ID NO:15) using pALK492 as a template. The PCR reaction conditions were as described above, except that the extension time in the amplification reaction was 90 s. The PCR product was digested with MlyI and AgeI enzymes and purified from the agarose gel. The linker+CBD containing PCR fragment was ligated into the 7.2 kb AgeI-NruI restriction fragment of pALK1705 and transformed into E. coli XL 1-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Transformants were analyzed as described above and a suitable clone was designated as pALK1706.

To enable selection of T. reesei transformants the amdS marker gene and the T. reesei cbhI 3′ flanking region were inserted into the vector plasmid pALK1706. A 4.8 kb EcoRI-SpeI restriction fragment of pALK424 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,515) was isolated and the fragment ends were filled-in with Klenow enzyme. The blunt-ended amdS marker fragment was ligated into the StuI digested pALK1706 and transformed into E. coli XLI-Blue (Stratagene, USA). Plasmid DNA was isolated from transformants and the desired orientation of the insert was verified by restriction enzyme digestion. The selected transformant was designated as pALK1709.

A 9.6 kb linear expression cassette (FIG. 14A) from pALK1709 backbone was isolated by EcoRI digestion, transformed into T. reesei RF5636 protoplasts, and transformants selected with acetamide as sole nitrogen source. The host strain lacks three major endogenous cellulases: CBHII (Cel6A), EGI (Cel7B) and EGII (Cel5A). Transformation was performed according to Penttilä et al. (1987) with modifications described by Karhunen et al. (1993). Transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD.

The production of 50KB+CBD fusion protein of the transformants was analyzed from the culture supernatants of shake flask cultivations (50 ml). Transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulose-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The cellobiohydrolase activity of the fusion protein was measured using 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-lactoside substrate (MUL activity; van Tilbeurgh et al. 1988). The 50KB+CBD protein was detected from the culture supernatants by ProtoBlot Western blot AP system (Promega) using polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified Melanocarpus albomyces 50KB cellulase (Haakana et al. 2004). In Western blot analysis no wild type 50KB protein was detected showing that the 50KB+CBD fusion protein produced from T. reesei is stable. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were analysed by Southern blotting using the expression cassette as a probe. The possible targeting of the expression cassette to the cbhI locus was also verified by Western blotting using monoclonal CBHI antibodies (CI-261, Aho et al. 1991) to detect CBHI protein.

Example 7 Production of the Recombinant Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD Fusion Proteins in T. reesei

Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI (AC#AF478686, Hong et al., 2003; SEQ ID. NO: 9) was fused to linker and CBD of Trichoderma reesei CBHI (AC#AR088330, Srisodsuk et al. 1993; SEQ ID. NO: 3). First, the coding sequence of the linker and the CBD of T. reesei CBHI was synthesized by PCR using following primers:

(forward sequence, SEQ ID. NO: 34) 5′-TTAAACATATGTTATCTACTCCAACATCAAGGTCGGACCCATTGGC A-GCACCGGCAACCCTAGCGGC-3′ and (reverse sequence, SEQ ID. NO: 35) 5′-TATATGCGGCCGCACCGGTGCGTCAGGCTTTCGCACGGAGCTTT ACAGGC-3′.

The PCR reaction mixture contained 1× DyNAzyme™ EXT reaction buffer (Finnzymes, Finland), 15 mM Mg²⁺, 0.2 mM dNTPs, 2 μM of each primer, 0.6 units of DyNAzyme™ EXT DNA polymerase (Finnzymes, Finland), and approximately 75 ng/30 μl of the pALK492 template. The pALK492 plasmid contains the T. reesei cbh1 (cel7A) gene. The conditions for the PCR reaction were the following: 2 min initial denaturation at 98° C., followed by 30 cycles of 30 sec at 98° C., 30 sec annealing at 68° C. (±4° C. gradient), 30 sec extension at 72° C. and a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min. The specific DNA fragment in PCR reaction was obtained at annealing temperature range from 64° C. to 68.5° C. The synthesized CBD fragment, containing also 3′-terminal nucleotide sequence of Thermoascus aurantiacus cbh1 gene, was digested NdeI and NotI restriction enzymes and the fragment was isolated from the agarose gel after electrophoresis. Thereafter, the isolated PCR fragment was ligated to the NdeI and NotI digested pALK1649 (FIG. 7) vector fragment containing the full-length Thermoascus aurantiacus cbh1 gene. The plasmid obtained was named as pALK1888, and the PCR amplified fragment in the plasmid was confirmed by sequencing. As a result of fusion, the C-terminal part of the Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI in the pALK1888 plasmid contains a junction point of GPIGST (FIG. 15B). The SacII and AgeI digested insert of the plasmid pALK1888 was ligated to SacII and AgeI digested pALK1694 (FIG. 8) vector fragment, which results to Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD fusion to T. reesei cbh1 (cel7A) promoter (an exact fusion) and terminator. At the final step, the amdS marker fragment was added, as described in Example 3, to obtain expression plasmid of pALK1890 for production of recombinant Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD fusion enzyme in T. reesei. The amino acid sequence of the Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI protein fusion to linker peptide followed by the CBD region of T. reesei CBHI is presented in FIG. 15B.

The expression plasmid was confirmed by restriction enzyme digestions, and the 8.9 kb linear expression cassette (FIG. 15A) was isolated from the vector backbone after NotI digestion and was transformed to T. reesei RF5796 protoplasts. The transformations were performed as in Penttilä et al. (1987) with the modifications described in Karhunen et al. (1993). The transformants were purified on selection plates through single conidia prior to sporulating them on PD.

Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD production of the transformants was analyzed from the culture supernatants of the shake flask cultivations (50 ml). The transformants were grown for 7 days in a complex cellulase-inducing medium (Joutsjoki et al. 1993) buffered with 5% KH₂PO₄ at pH 5.5. The cellobiohydrolase activity was assayed using 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-lactoside (MUL) substrate according to van Tilbeurgh et al., 1988. The genotypes of the chosen transformants were confirmed by using Southern blots in which several genomic digests were included and the expression cassette was used as a probe. The SDS-PAGE analyses showed that the recombinant Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI+CBD enzyme was produced as stable fusion protein in T. reesei.

Example 8 Performance of the Fusion 20K+CBD Protein Preparations in Denim Finishing/Biostoning

20K+CBD fusion proteins produced using Trichoderma as host as described in Example 2 were tested for their ability in biostoning of denim to create abraded look similar to that provided by pumice stones. A commercial 20K preparation efficient in denim finishing was used for comparison.

English jeans made of Indigo dyed denim twill with sulphur bottom were used as test material after desizing with ECOSTONE® A200 alpha-amylase. Warp and weft yarns of the fabric were ring spun. The cellulase treatments were performed with Electrolux's Wascator FOM 71 CLS washer extractor under conditions described in Table 9.

TABLE 9 Test conditions used in the cellulase treatments. Process parameter Denim load 1.3 kg Water 19 l Buffer/pH control (pH 6.5) 31.6 g Na₂HPO₄•H₂O 10.5 g Citric acid Time 55 min Temperature 60° C. Cellulase dosage 250-3000 NCU/g fabric

Enzymes were dosed as neutral cellulase activity units (NCU) per the weight of the fabric. The cellulase enzyme was inactivated after draining by raising the pH above 11 by adding 5 g of NaOH (10 min, 40° C.) and rinsing three times. The jeans were dried in a tumbler. Two pairs of jeans were used in each test.

The biostoning effect/abrasion level was evaluated by measuring the color as reflectance values with Minolta CM 2500 or CM 1000 spectrophotometer using L*a*b* color space coordinates (illuminant D65/2°). The color from the face side and the reverse side of denim (data not shown) was measured after desizing (i.e. before the cellulase treatment) and after the cellulase treatment. Each measurement was the average of approximately 40 measurements. Two pairs of jeans were used in each test and the final result is the average of them. Lightness or increase of lightness after enzyme treatment was used for evaluation of abrasion effect (performance or biostoning effect). The results are shown in Tables 10 and 11, where bolding is used to highlight the similar abrasion levels and equivalent dosages. Treatments with 20K or without any enzyme were used for comparison. Some of preparations (Table 11) had been heat treated (pH 6.0, 65° C., 60 to 70 min) in order to inactivate any remaining T. reesei endogenous enzyme activity and/or in order to test the effect of heat treatment on the stability of the enzyme.

TABLE 10 Color measurements of the face side of denim treated with 20K + CBD fusion proteins Before NCU/ cellulase After cellulase Strain g treatment treatment Increase No. Enzyme fabric L* b* L* b* of L* — No enzyme 0 16.77 −9.95 18.18 −12.39 1.42 — 20K¹ 3000 16.80 −9.70 24.00 −14.71 7.20 — 20K¹ 1500 16.73 −10.05 22.98 −14.62 6.25 RF6036 20K + CBD 500 16.41 −10.14 22.80 −14.19 6.40 RF5977 20K + CBD 250 16.68 −9.91 22.81 −14.47 6.13 RF5977 20K + CBD 500 16.73 −10.01 24.07 −14.70 7.34 RF5977 20K + CBD 1500 16.71 −9.68 25.63 −14.79 8.93 L* indicates the lightness, −b* is the blue direction, +b* is the yellow direction. ¹Commercial preparation

TABLE 11 Color measurements of the face side of denim treated with heat treated 20K + CBD fusion proteins Before cellulase After cellulase treatment treatment Increase Strain No. Enzyme NCU/g fabric L* b* L* B* of L* — No enzyme 0 16.77 −9.95 18.18 −12.39 1.42 — 20K¹ (not heat treated) 3000 16.80 −9.70 24.00 −14.71 7.20 — 20K¹ (not heat treated) 1500 16.73 −10.05 22.98 −14.62 6.25 RF5206 20K CBHI- 3000 16.80 −10.00 22.61 −14.59 5.81 RF5582 20K + CBD construct #1, CBHI- 3000 16.83 −10.01 26.39 −15.13 9.56 RF5582 20K + CBD-construct #1, CBHI- 1000 16.61 −9.76 23.98 −14.98 7.37 RF5582 20K + CBD-construct #1, CBHI- 500 16.70 −9.93 22.75 −14.75 6.05 RF5583 20K + CBD-construct #2, CBHI- 3000 16.73 −9.98 24.78 −14.95 8.05 RF5583 20K + CBD-construct #2, CBHI- 1000 16.92 −9.92 22.73 −14.57 5.81 RF5583 20K + CBD-construct #2, CBHI- 500 16.62 −10.03 21.76 −14.37 5.14 RF5977 20K + CBD-construct #5,² 500 16.56 −9.77 23.00 −14.55 6.45 L* indicates the lightness. −b* is the blue direction. +b* is the yellow direction. ¹Commercial preparation, ²CBHI-, CBHII-, EGI-, EGII-

Results in Table 10 and FIG. 16 show that the washing performance of the 20K+CBD fusion proteins of the invention in denim treatment was greatly improved compared to 20K strains. With stain RF5977 the enzyme dosage as low as 250 NCU/g fabric could be used to obtain similar abrasion level (lightness L*) to that obtained with the 20K dosage of 1500 NCU/g. Thus a 6 times better washing performance was obtained, and the contrast was good. Also the washing performance obtained with strain RF5978 was similar to that obtained with RF5977.

Heat treatment of the fusion protein preparations seemed to somewhat decrease the stone washing effect, for instance with strain RF5977 a dosage of 500 NCU/g fabric was needed to obtain the same abrasion level as with dosage of 250 NCU/g of not heat treated enzyme preparation (Table 10). Nevertheless, a 3-fold improvement in the washing performance was achieved as compared to a prior art preparation.

Example 9 Performance of Fusion 20K+CBD Affinity Mutant Protein and Fusion 20K+CBD Linker Deletion Protein Preparations in Denim Finishing/Biostoning

Fusion 20K+CBD affinity mutant enzymes produced using Trichoderma as host described in Example 3 and fusion 20K+CBD linker deletion proteins produced using Trichoderma as host as described in Example 4 were tested for their ability in biostoning of denim. A 20K preparation efficient in denim finishing was used for comparison.

The denim and test systems for biostoning were as in Example 8. Also the effect of the cellulase treatment was evaluated as in Example 8. The results of the biostoning test for exemplary fusion 20K+CBD affinity mutant protein and fusion 20K+CBD linker deletion protein preparations are shown in Table 12.

Strain RF6090 with the Y31W amino acid substitution showed excellent washing performance (ca. 6 times better than 20K) and good contrast. The efficiency of strain RF6090 compared to 20K can clearly be seen also in FIG. 16. The Strain RF6084 with Y31A amino acid substitution was ca. 1.5 times better than 20K. Fusion 20K+CBD_(mut) proteins with a Y32A or Y31A_Y32A amino acid substitution had a lower biostoning effect than 20K. The washing performance of the 20K+CBD linker deletion proteins in denim treatment was greatly improved compared to 20K strain and good contrast was obtained. With strain RF6108 (ΔG-444) the washing performance was at least 6 times better than with 20K and with strain RF6110 (ΔG-460) ca. 3 times better.

TABLE 12 Color measurements of the face side of denim treated with 20K + CBD affinity mutant and fusion 20K + CBD linker deletion proteins Before cellulase After cellulose Enzyme Activity/ treatment treatment Strain No. (amino acid substitution) g fabric L* B* L* B* Increase of L* — No enzyme 0 16.77 −9.95 18.18 −12.39 1.42 — 20K¹ 3000 16.80 −9.70 24.00 −14.71 7.20 — 20K¹ 1500 16.73 −10.05 22.98 −14.62 6.25 RF6086 20K + CBDmut(Y32A) 1500 16.83 −9.68 22.05 −14.14 5.22 RF6086 20K + CBDmut(Y32A) 3000 16.68 −9.76 23.30 −14.40 6.62 RF6084 20K + CBDmut(Y31A) 1000 16.83 −9.42 23.15 −14.26 6.32 RF6090 20K + CBDmut(Y31W) 250 16.79 −9.32 22.99 −14.24 6.21 RF6090 20K + CBDmut(Y31W) 1000 16.77 −9.22 25.10 −14.74 8.33 RF6094 20K + CBDmut(Y31A_Y32A) 1500 16.78 −9.30 21.66 −14.02 4.89 RF6094 20K + CBDmut(Y31A_Y32A) 3000 16.71 −9.36 22.27 −14.14 5.56 — 20K¹ 3000 16.80 −9.70 24.00 −14.71 7.20 RF6108 20K + CBD(ΔG-444) 250 16.65 −9.59 23.62 −13.97 6.97 RF6110 20K + CBD(ΔG-460) 1000 16.81 −9.72 24.17 −14.39 7.37 L* indicates the lightness. −b* is the blue direction. +b* is the yellow direction. ¹Commercial preparation

Example 10 Effect of the 20K+CBD Fusion Proteins on the Strength of the Denim

Some of the jeans obtained from washing tests with 20K+CBD fusion proteins (Examples 8 and 9) that had similar abrasion level (L*-value ca. 23 or 24 after cellulase treatment) were selected for the strength measurements. The tear strength after treatment with 20K+CBD fusion proteins and control samples were measured by Elmendof method according to standard SFS-EN ISO 13937-1. The specimens were cut both in the warp and weft direction. The results are shown in Table 13.

The cellulase fusion proteins caused essentially same or lower strength loss as 20K, i.e., with some preparations the strength of the fabric remained even higher. The lowest strength loss both in warp and weft direction was obtained with strain RF6108 with linker deletion ΔG-444. Also affinity mutant RF6090 with Y31W amino acid substitution caused less strength loss than 20K. Strain RF5977 had rather similar effect on the strength of the fabric than 20K.

Some of the jeans washed with heat treated fusion protein preparations (Example 8, Table 11) were also selected for tear strength measurements. It was noticed that the strength of the fabric was improved with some heat treated preparations, but because of the reduced washing performance higher dosages had to be used to obtain the same abrasion level.

TABLE 13 Tear strength measurements of jeans treated with 20K + CBD fusion proteins of the invention Warp Weft Strain NCU/ Tear Tear No. Enzyme protein g fabric L* strenght (N) (%) strenght (N) (%) — No enzyme 0 1.5 62.2 100.0 46.2 100.0 — 20K¹ 1500 22.9 46.3 74.4 31.9 69.0 RF5977 20K + CBD 250 22.9 48.1 77.3 32.1 69.5 RF6086 20K + CBDmut (Y32A) 3000 23.1 46.6 74.9 30 64.9 RF6084 20K + CBDmut (Y31A) 1000 23.1 47.2 75.9 30.6 66.2 RF6090 20K + CBDmut (Y31W) 250 23.2 48.6 78.1 34.4 74.5 RF6094 20K + CBDmut (Y31A_Y32A) 3000 22.3 48.4 77.8 32.9 71.2 — 20K¹ 3000 23.9 47.6 76.5 28.9 62.6 RF6108 20K + CBD (ΔG-444) 250 23.8 54.3 87.3 35.2 76.2 RF6110 20K + CBD (ΔG-460) 1000 24.0 48.4 77.8 29.8 64.5 ¹Commercial preparation

Example 11 Comparison of Selected 20K+CBD Fusion Protein Preparations with Prior Art Enzyme Preparations

Best 20K+CBD fusion proteins from Examples 8 and 9 were tested with other type of denim. 20K preparation (Ecostone® NP8500) efficient in denim finishing and two commercially available prior art preparations, DeniMax® 399S from Novozymes and Mex 500 from Meiji, which is the most concentrated solid enzyme preparation commercially available, were used for comparison.

The test system for biostoning was as in Example 8, except the denim load was 1 kg and the liquor ratio therefore slightly higher. Five pieces of denim (“legs”) made of Down Under Denim twill (Bradmill Textiles Pty, Australia) were used for each test after desizing. Warp and weft yarns of the fabric were ring spun. Enzymes were dosed as NCU-activity units, so that similar abrasion levels (measured as lightness of the face side of denim after cellulase treatment) were obtained. The effect of the cellulase treatment was evaluated as in Example 8, except 20 color measurements were measured per leg.

Two legs with similar abrasion level (L*-value ca. 26 after cellulase treatment) from each washing test were selected for the strength measurements. The tear strength after treatment with 20K+CBD fusion proteins and control samples were measured as in Example 10. The results are shown in Table 14 and FIGS. 17A and 17B.

The tear strength of weft, which is typically weaker yarn than warp, was higher with fusion proteins of strains RF5977, RF6090, RF6108 and RF6110 than with 20K. With all of the fusion protein strains considerable higher strength both in warp and weft direction was obtained compared to DeniMax 399S and Mex 500. Also 20K strain was less harmful to the strength of the fabric than the other prior art preparations.

TABLE 14 Tear strength measurements of denim treated with 20K + CBD fusion proteins of the invention, 20K and prior art preparations Warp Tear Weft strength Tear strength Enzyme Form L* (N) (N) Ecostone NP8500 powder 25.9 58.0 40.3 RF5977, 20K + CBD granula 26.0 56.1 44.4 Mex 500, Meiji powder 26.1 48.4 31.1 DeniMax 399S, Novozymes granula 25.5 50.6 38.1 RF6090, 20K + CBD_(mut) (Y31W) liquid 26.0 57.9 43.4 RF6108, 20K + CBD (ΔG-444) liquid 25.9 55.6 43.9 RF6110, 20K + CBD (ΔG-460) liquid 26.2 59.8 45.4 L* indicates the lightness of the face side of denim after cellulase treatment

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1. A cellulase fusion protein comprising: an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species; and an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species, and a junction region having the following general formula: ¹A-²B-³Ile-⁴D-⁵Ser-⁶F (SEQ ID NO: 85)

wherein ¹A is Gly or Val; ²B is Pro, Gln, or Glu; ⁴D is Gly or Pro; and ⁶F is Ser or is absent between said first amino acid sequence and said second amino acid sequence, whereby a stable fusion protein is obtained.
 2. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, wherein the junction region has the following formula: ¹Val-²Gln-³Ile-⁴Pro-⁵Ser-⁶Ser. (SEQ ID NO: 52)


3. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, wherein the junction region has the following formula: ¹Gly-²Glu-³Ile-⁴Gly-⁵Ser (SEQ ID NO: 53) or ¹Gly-²Pro-³Ile-⁴Gly-⁵Ser (SEQ ID NO: 54)


4. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, wherein said first amino acid sequence is from a neutral cellulase and said second amino acid sequence is from an acid cellulase.
 5. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 4, wherein said first amino acid sequence is from a cellulase of family 45 and said second amino acid sequence is from a cellulase of family
 7. 6. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 4, wherein said neutral cellulase is of fungal origin.
 7. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 6, wherein said neutral cellulase is derived from a genus selected from the group consisting of Melanocarpus, Humicola, Thielavia, Myceliophthora, Fusarium, Acremonium, Chrysosporium, Thermoascus, Scopulariopsis, Myriococcum, Talaromyces and Chaetomium.
 8. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 7, wherein said cellulase is Melanocarpus albomyces 20 K cellulase, 50K cellulase, 50KB cellulase, or a derivative thereof.
 9. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 7, wherein said cellulase is Thermoascus aurantiacus CBHI or a derivative thereof.
 10. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 4, wherein said acid cellulase is derived from Trichoderma sp. or Hypocrea.
 11. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, wherein the first amino acid sequence is the 20 K cellulase of Melanocarpus albomyces of SEQ ID NO:2, optionally having at least one modification selected from the group consisting of: deletion of Ala at position 207, deletion of Val at position 208, substitution of Phe209Trp, and insertion of Pro after position 206, or a fragment thereof having cellulase activity, and the second amino acid sequence is the linker and CBD of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I of SEQ ID NO:4, optionally having at least one modification selected from the group consisting of: substitution of tyrosine at position 492 (position 31 of the CBD), 493 (position 32 of the CBD) of the mature T. reesei CBHI with an aliphatic or aromatic amino acid, and deletions of amino acids 434 to 444 or 434 to 460 of the mature T. reesei CBHI sequence, or a fragment thereof having CBD activity.
 12. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein said second amino acid sequence is set forth as SEQ ID NO:44.
 13. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, wherein said first amino acid sequence is set forth as SEQ ID NO:39, said second amino acid sequence is set forth as SEQ ID NO:44, and said junction region has the formula: ¹Val-²Gln-³Ile-⁴Pro-⁵Ser-⁶Ser.
 14. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein in said second amino acid sequence at least one of said tyrosine at position 492 (position 31 of the CBD) and 493 (position 32 of the CBD) of the mature T. reesei CBHI is substituted with alanine or tryptophan.
 15. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 14, wherein said second amino acid sequence is selected from a group of SEQ ID. NO: 45, 46, 47, and
 48. 16. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein in said second amino acid sequence amino acids 434 to 444 or 434 to 460 of the mature T. reesei CBHI sequence are deleted.
 17. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 16, wherein said second amino acid sequence is selected from the group of SEQ ID. NO: 49 and
 50. 18. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein in said first amino acid sequence valine at position 208 of the 20K cellulase sequence of M. albomyces of SEQ ID. NO: 2 has been deleted.
 19. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein in said first amino acid sequence alanine at position 207 of the 20K cellulase sequence of M. albomyces of SEQ ID. NO: 2 has been deleted.
 20. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein in said first amino acid sequence phenylalanine at position 209 of the 20 K cellulase sequence of M. albomyces of SEQ ID. NO: 2 has been substituted with Trp.
 21. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein said first amino acid sequence contains an inserted proline after position 206 in the 20 K cellulase sequence of M. albomyces of SEQ ID. NO:
 2. 22. The cellulase fusion protein of claim 11, wherein said first amino acid sequence is selected from the group of SEQ ID. NO: 37, 38, 39, and
 40. 23. A process for the production of a cellulase fusion protein of claim 1, comprising the steps of culturing a host cell comprising an expression vector comprising a first polynucleotide encoding a an optionally modified first amino acid sequence of a cellulase core derived from one species; and a second polynucleotide encoding an optionally modified second amino acid sequence of a linker and cellulose binding domain (CBD) derived from another species, and a polynucleotide encoding a junction region connecting said first and second amino acid sequence and having the following general formula: ¹A-²B-³Ile-⁴D-⁵Ser-⁶F (SEQ ID NO: 85)

wherein ¹A is Gly or Val; ²B is Pro, Gln, or Glu; ⁴D is Gly or Pro; and ⁶F is Ser or is absent and recovering the encoded protein from the culture medium.
 24. The process of claim 23, wherein the first polynucleotide encodes a first amino acid sequence of 20 K cellulase of Melanocarpus albomyces of SEQ ID NO:2, optionally having at least one modification selected from the group consisting of: deletion of Ala at position 207, deletion of Val at position 208, substitution of Phe209Trp, and insertion of Pro after position 206, or a fragment thereof having cellulase activity, and the second polynucleotide encodes a second amino acid sequence of the linker and CBD of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I of SEQ ID NO:4, optionally having at least one modification selected from the group consisting of: substitution of tyrosine at position 492 (position 31 of the CBD), 493 (position 32 of the CBD) of the mature T. reesei CBHI with an aliphatic or aromatic amino acid, and deletions of amino acids 434 to 444 or 434 to 460 of the mature T. reesei CBHI sequence, or a fragment thereof having CBD activity.
 25. An enzyme preparation comprising the cellulase fusion protein of claim
 1. 26. A process for biostoning which comprises the step of adding the cellulase fusion protein of claim 1 to cotton containing fabric or garments.
 27. The process of claim 26, wherein the fabric or garment is denim.
 28. A process for biofinishing, which comprises the step of adding the cellulase fusion protein of claim 1 to a textile material.
 29. The process of claim 28, wherein the textile material is manufactured of natural cellulose containing fibers or manmade cellulose containing fibers or a mixture thereof.
 30. The process of claim 28, wherein the textile material is a blend of synthetic fibers and cellulose containing fibers.
 31. A detergent composition comprising the fusion protein of claim 1 and one or more auxiliaries.
 32. A method of treating cellulosic fiber containing textile material, wherein said method comprises contacting said textile material with the detergent composition of claim
 31. 33. A method for treating wood-derived pulp or fiber, which comprises the step of adding the cellulase fusion protein of claim 1 to wood-derived mechanical or chemical pulp or secondary fiber.
 34. A method for improving the quality of animal feed, which comprises treating plant material with the cellulase fusion protein of claim
 1. 35. The process for biofinishing of claim 28, herein said textile material is fabric, garment or yarn.
 36. The detergent composition of claim 31, wherein said auxiliaries are selected from the group consisting of surface active agents, surfactants, bleaching agents and builders. 